[AKYUNG Poll] President Moon's Approval Rating Barely Holds at 40% Range

Even the Concrete Supporters in Their 40s Have Changed Their Minds

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] President Moon Jae-in's approval rating for his administration barely maintained the 40% range. Attention is also drawn to the fact that the rising trend in approval ratings among the 40s age group, known as the 'concrete support base,' has stalled.

On the 14th, Asia Economy commissioned Win-G Korea Consulting to conduct a public opinion survey (100% mobile phone virtual numbers, automated response) targeting 1,022 voters aged 18 and over nationwide from the 11th to 12th. The result showed that 40.4% responded positively that President Moon is 'doing well' in his administration, down 3.9 percentage points from 44.3% in the previous survey conducted in the third week of August (August 21-22). During the same period, negative responses saying 'not doing well' rose 1.4 percentage points from 54.2% to 55.6%.

Accordingly, the gap between positive and negative responses widened significantly from 9.9 percentage points to 15.1 percentage points. This double-digit gap occurred for the first time since the fourth week of June (13.5 percentage points). The 'don't know' responses accounted for 4.0%.

Approval ratings declined in all regions compared to the previous survey, but the trend of approval dominance continued in Gwangju and Jeolla (62.4%). However, in other regions such as Gyeonggi and Incheon (42.6%), Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam (33.2%), Seoul (39.7%), Gangwon and Jeju (35.7%), Daejeon, Sejong, and Chungcheong (38.5%), and Daegu and Gyeongbuk (28.5%), negative evaluations exceeded 50%.

By age group, positive evaluations were highest among those in their 40s at 55.7%, but this was a 7.1 percentage point drop from 62.8% in the previous survey, indicating that even the concrete support base has turned away. Negative evaluations reached the 60% range among those in their 20s (29.8%), 60s (38.2%), and 70 and older (28.2%).

This is interpreted as being influenced by the controversy over the distribution of the national support fund (the 5th disaster relief fund), which began offline applications on the 13th, and the event effects related to the commencement of the People Power Party's primary cut-off.

Win-G Korea Consulting analyzed, "The controversy arose as the disaster relief fund was applied to 88% of the population, and accumulated dissatisfaction from small business owners expressing fatigue over social distancing measures seems to have had an impact." They also noted that the active responses from the People Power Party supporters, who have entered the full-scale party primary, contributed to the decline in the president's approval rating in this survey.

This survey was conducted by Asia Economy commissioning Win-G Korea Consulting from the 11th to 12th targeting voters aged 18 and over nationwide, with 1,022 respondents and an overall response rate of 7.4%. The survey method was wireless ARS using 100% mobile phone virtual numbers, and the sample was extracted with weighting values (cell weighting) by gender, age, and region based on the resident registration population as of the end of January 2021 from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For detailed survey information, refer to the Win-G Korea Consulting website or the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.

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