May 6, 2004
Report & Analysis · Other Poll Releases
Georgians cite the economy and jobs as the most important problem currently facing the state, according to the most recent Peach State Poll. Education is seen as the second biggest problem followed by dissatisfaction with government. The Peach State Poll is a quarterly survey of public opinion conducted by the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
A slim plurality of Georgians remains optimistic about the direction in which the state is going. When asked if Georgia is headed in the right direction or off on the wrong track, 46 percent of respondents replied that the state is headed in the right direction, which is a 6 percent decline from the previous quarter. On the other hand, 42 percent of Georgians say the state is on the wrong track, which is a 10 percent increase from the previous quarter. Compared to November 2003, a growing number of Georgians feel that the state is headed in the wrong direction.
Other Peach State Poll Results:
* Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to believe that the state is generally headed in the right direction (70 percent and 35 percent, respectively).
* Georgians rate the state highly as a place to live. A majority of respondents feel that Georgia has a good state university system (75 percent), is a good place to retire (74 percent), has clean water (57 percent), and has reasonably priced housing (56 percent).
* Georgians are largely unfamiliar with many units of state government. Forty percent of respondents are unfamiliar with the Office of the Secretary of State and over one-quarter are unfamiliar with the Georgia Supreme Court (28 percent).
* Of the units of state government inquired about, the State University System has the highest approval rating (89 percent) by those who believe that they are familiar enough with the University System to assess its performance. Additionally, over three-quarters of Georgians who believe that they are familiar enough with an agency or unit of government to assess its performance approve of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (85 percent), the Office of the Secretary of State (81 percent), and the Georgia Supreme Court (77 percent).
These data were taken from a Peach State Poll survey conducted between February 27 and March 8, 2004. The poll included 800 telephone interviews of randomly selected adults in Georgia. For a sample of this size, the margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level is ±3.5 percent.
