Moon's Approval Rating Slightly Drops to 45%... Impact of Government-Medical Sector Confrontation [Gallup]

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] A public opinion poll showed that President Moon Jae-in's approval rating for his job performance slightly declined compared to the previous week.

Korea Gallup announced on the 4th that, based on a survey conducted from the 1st to the 3rd among 1,002 adults aged 18 and over, 45% of respondents gave a positive evaluation of President Moon's job performance. This figure dropped by 2 percentage points from the previous week. Negative evaluations rose by 1 percentage point to 44%.

By age group, the positive/negative ratings were 30%/54% for ages 18-29 (hereafter '20s'), 58%/33% for 30s, 55%/37% for 40s, 49%/45% for 50s, and 39%/49% for 60 and older. Notably, compared to the previous week, the positive rating among both males and females in their 20s dropped by 10 percentage points each, showing a relatively large change.

By political party support, 81% of supporters of the Democratic Party of Korea evaluated the president's job performance positively, while 87% of People Power Party supporters evaluated it negatively. Among the non-affiliated group, negative ratings also led (positive 24% · negative 55%).

When asked the reasons for positive evaluations from those who approved of the president's job performance (454 respondents), the responses were as follows: 'Response to COVID-19' (44%), 'Overall good performance' (9%), 'Doing their best / working hard' (6%), 'Considering the people's position' (5%), 'Expansion of welfare' (4%), 'Faithful to basics / principled / fairness', and 'Having conviction and principles' (both 3%).

Responses related to COVID-19 had decreased to the 20% range in August but recently increased again to around 40% with the resurgence of COVID-19.

Those who gave negative evaluations of job performance (445 respondents) cited reasons such as 'Real estate policy' (19%), 'Overall insufficient', 'Arbitrary / one-sided / biased' (both 9%), 'Inadequate COVID-19 response', 'Lack of solutions to economic and livelihood issues' (both 8%), 'Medical policy' (7%), 'Personnel issues', 'National division and conflict' (both 4%), and 'Lack of communication' (3%).

The increase in responses citing 'medical policy' compared to last week appears to reflect the growing impact of the prolonged standoff between the government and the medical community. Although attention to real estate issues has decreased due to the recent COVID-19 resurgence, it remains the top reason for negative evaluations for the ninth consecutive week.

Party support ratings were 39% for the Democratic Party, 20% for the People Power Party, 4% each for the Justice Party and the People Party, and 3% for the Open Democratic Party. Compared to the previous week, the Democratic Party, People Party, and Open Democratic Party each rose by 1-2 percentage points, the Justice Party fell by 3 percentage points, and the People Power Party remained unchanged.

This survey contacted 6,499 adults aged 18 and over nationwide, with a final 1,002 respondents completing the survey, resulting in a 15% response rate. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For more details, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.