Verité Research releases the results of the “Mood of the Nation” poll for October 2022

Government approval moves up, but only to an extreme low level of 10%

The third round of the Gallup Style “Mood of the Nation” poll was conducted in October by Verité Research. It assessed the approval, satisfaction, and confidence of the nation in relation to the government, the country, and the economy.

The poll was conducted as a part of the syndicated survey instrument by Verité Research. This instrument also provides other organisations the opportunity to survey the sentiments of Sri Lanka.

1. Government approval rating | 10% | To the question, “Do you approve or disapprove of the way the current government is working?” only 10% said they approve. This is the same extreme low level as it was in January 2022. But it was an improvement from the 3% approval ratings in June 2022.
2. Sri Lanka satisfaction | 7% | To the question, “In general, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in Sri Lanka?” only 7% said they were satisfied. This rating was at 6% in January and 2% in June, 2022.
3. Economic confidence | negative (-) 77.9 | Multiple choice questions on the condition and trajectory of the economy are used to generate an economic confidence score. The score can range from negative (-) 100 to positive (+) 100. A score above zero means more people see the economic conditions positively rather than negatively. If everyone thinks that the economy is in a poor condition (instead of good or excellent), and everyone also thinks it is getting worse (rather than better), then the score will be a (-) 100. In October 2022, 0.5% rated the economic condition as excellent, 4.8% rate it as good; and 16.2% rated it as getting better. The resulting score was a (-) 77.9 (rounded off as (-) 78). This rating was (-) 83 in January and (-) 96 in June.

Implementation of “Mood of the Nation”

The poll is based on an island wide nationally representative sample of responses from 1,018 Sri Lankan adults, conducted in October 2022. The sample and methodology was designed to ensure a maximum error margin of under 3% at a 95% confidence interval. The polling partner was Vanguard Survey (Pvt) Ltd.