President Biden’s approval rating has dropped far more sharply among young Americans than among older Americans over the course of his presidency, Gallup said Thursday.
The polling company said Mr. Biden’s approval rating dropped by 21 points, from 60% to 39%, among Generation Z — those born from 1997 to 2004 — between the start of his term and the period spanning September to March.
It dropped by 19 points among millennials born between 1981 and 1996 and stands at 41%.
By contrast, Mr. Biden has only seen a 7-point drop among baby boomers, to 46%, and no change among “traditionalists” who were born before 1946 and give Mr. Biden a 48% approval.
Gallup said Mr. Biden enjoyed a national average approval of 56% in the honeymoon phase of his presidency in the first half of 2021. In fact, Generation Z and millennials gave Mr. Biden a higher approval rating than the national average during this time, while older Americans tended to come in below the average, though things changed dramatically after the delta wave of COVID-19 and Afghanistan withdrawal in July and August.
“By the summer, as coronavirus cases unexpectedly rose, Biden had lost significant support among Generation Z, millennials and Generation X, ranging from seven- to 10-percentage-point drops. But his approval rating held steady among baby boomers and traditionalists,” the pollsters said. “All generational groups have become less approving of Biden since the summer, after the troubled U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in late August 2021, with the exception of traditionalists, whose approval has not changed.”
Gallup offered a theory for the generational split: Approval ratings tend to track party identification, and Mr. Biden has suffered greatly among independents who supported him in the 2020 election over Donald Trump.
Pollsters said older Americans are more likely to identify as either Republican or Democrat, with only a quarter to a third of traditionalists and baby boomers identifying as independents. Meanwhile, roughly half of those in Generation Z, millennials and the next-oldest group, Generation X, identify as independents.
“Approval ratings are more strongly linked to partisanship now than in the past,” Gallup said. “To date, approval of Biden among independents has declined more than it has among Democrats or Republicans.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.