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- President Biden has a 63% approval rating among young voters, according to a Harvard poll.
- Biden also boasts a 59% job approval rating among voters aged 18 to 29.
- Since the president’s election, minority Americans have seen a surge in hopefulness for the future.
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President Joe Biden boasts a 63% approval rating among young Americans aged 18 to 29, according to a new poll released by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, which represents the highest figure for any president in the survey’s 21-year history.
The Institute’s data revealed that among Biden’s predecessors, then-President Donald Trump’s highest approval rating among young voters peaked at 33% in 2019, with then-President Barack Obama reaching 57% approval in 2016 and then-President George W. Bush with a 61% approval rating in 2003.
The Harvard Youth Poll showed that 59% of Americans aged 18 to 29 approve of Biden’s overall job performance.
Biden received positive marks on a range of issues, including his handling of the coronavirus pandemic (65% approval) and the economy (53% approval), along with climate change (58% approval), national security (52% approval), education (58% approval), and race relations (57% approval).
The president’s surge in favorability is a stark contrast to the Harvard poll from last spring, when only 34% of young American adults viewed him favorably.
The poll also reflected the renewed optimism that younger Americans now have compared to 2017, during Trump’s first full year office. That fall, only 31% of young Americans were hopeful about the country’s future – 56% of young Americans are now hopeful, a huge turnaround.
The change even more dramatic for young Black and Hispanic Americans.
In 2017, only 18% of young Black Americans said they were hopeful about the country. That figure has skyrocketed to 72% in the new survey.
Among young Hispanic Americans, 29% expressed hope for the future in 2017, a number which climbed to 69% in the latest poll.
Young Black Americans gave Biden a 77% job approval rating in the poll, followed by young Hispanic Americans with 70% approval and young white Americans with a 48% approval rating.
Similar to older adults, variations in Biden’s approval rating due to geographic differences were evident in the poll.
While 69% of young Americans living in urban areas and 60% in the suburbs gave a thumbs up to Biden’s job performance, the numbers declined to 51% approval among young Americans in small towns and 42% approval for young Americans in rural areas.
The Harvard Youth poll was conducted between March 9 and March 22 with 2,513 Americans aged 18 to 29.
The margin of error for the overall sample was 2.6 percentage points.
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