President Moon's Approval Rating at 41.7%... Democratic Party Reverses to Rise After 3 Weeks [Realmeter]

People Power Party 35.3% (1.6%p↓) vs Democratic Party 32.7% (0.8%p↑)

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] A public opinion poll revealed that President Moon Jae-in's approval rating for his administration has shown a slight downward trend, maintaining the low 40% range for five consecutive weeks.

According to the first week of September survey conducted by Realmeter on behalf of YTN from August 30 to September 3, targeting 2,524 voters aged 18 and older nationwide, President Moon's approval rating rose by 0.4 percentage points from the previous week to 41.7% (23.7% strongly approve, 18.1% somewhat approve). This marks the fifth consecutive week in the low 40% range, following 41.5% in the first week of August, 42.0% in the second week, 41.6% in the third week, and 41.3% in the fourth week.

During the same period, negative evaluations decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 54.5% (15.7% somewhat disapprove, 38.7% strongly disapprove), and the 'don't know/no response' category fell by 0.2 percentage points to 3.8%. The gap between positive and negative evaluations stood at 12.8 percentage points, which is outside the margin of error.

Positive evaluations increased in the Chungcheong region (up 4.1%P), Seoul (up 3.0%P), among women (up 1.4%P), people in their 30s (up 5.0%P) and those aged 70 and above (up 4.8%P), supporters of the People’s Party (up 4.2%P) and the politically unaffiliated (up 1.3%P), centrists (up 2.3%P), as well as the unemployed (up 3.5%P) and students (up 1.5%P).

Conversely, negative evaluations rose in the PK region (up 4.7%P), Honam region (up 3.4%P), among men (up 1.4%P), those in their 60s (up 2.8%P), supporters of the Open Democratic Party (up 6.7%P) and the Justice Party (up 4.0%P), as well as in the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sector (up 5.7%P) and self-employed workers (up 4.2%P).

Realmeter analyzed that "the postponement of the Media Arbitration Act, the arrangement of standing committee chairs in the National Assembly, and the successful operation to accept Afghan nationals appear to have influenced these results."

Regarding party support, the People Power Party dropped by 1.6 percentage points from the previous week to 35.3%, while the Democratic Party rose by 0.8 percentage points to 32.7%, marking an increase after three weeks. The gap between the two major parties narrowed to 2.6 percentage points, entering the margin of error for the first time in three weeks.

Other parties recorded the following support levels: Open Democratic Party 7.2%, People’s Party 6.4%, Justice Party 3.7%, Basic Income Party 0.6%, Transition Korea 0.6%, other parties 1.8%, and politically unaffiliated 11.8%.

This survey used a mixed method of 90% mobile and 10% landline random digit dialing (RDD), telephone interviews (CATI), and automated response system (ARS). The sampling error is ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 5.5%. For more detailed information, refer to the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission or Realmeter’s website.

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