Biden Approval Ratings

Zogby Analytics recently surveyed how favorable and unfavorable respondents were of five countries' world leaders-U.S., Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K. Of all the G8 leaders polled, President Joe Biden of the United States was the most popular, overall, and the most popular world leader in each of the countries surveyed. In each nationwide survey Biden was more popular than that country's own leader.
There is no doubt that Joe Biden is in the honeymoon phase of his presidency. Leaders from around the world are just thrilled not to see Donald Trump, and Biden is a recognizable and familiar face they feel they can do business with on many different levels. Among the total international sample of 2,030 business leaders, Biden's approval rating was 79% favorable/17% unfavorable.

President Biden in the U.S.

U.S. business leaders are excited about Joe Biden! His favorable/unfavorable rating stood at 82% favorable (62% very favorable/20% somewhat favorable) and 16% unfavorable (5.2% somewhat unfavorable and 10.4% very unfavorable), while 2% were not sure.

Among the demographics of business leaders polled in the U.S., President Joe Biden was very popular; his favorability (very and somewhat favorable combined) was above 76%, while his unfavorable rating (very and somewhat unfavorable combined) was in the 13-20% range across all regions, age groups and genders.

Where the data diverged from the overall numbers was with the biggest size businesses in terms of annual revenue and number of employees. For instance, business leaders of companies with an annual revenue of $200M-250M (84% favorable/14% unfavorable) were much more favorable of the new president, while business leaders from companies with an annual revenue of $1Billion+ felt less enthusiastic about President Biden (71% favorable/26% unfavorable), but nonetheless Biden still performed well across all demographic groups analyzed. This detail was also evident among companies in terms of their employee size; companies with 500-1,000 employees were 69% very favorable (88% favorable/12% unfavorable), while companies with more than 5,000 employees were less favorable-47% very favorable (66% favorable/30% unfavorable).

Surveyed business leaders in the U.S. were also approving of other world leaders. Chancellor Angela Merkel: 70% favorable/17% unfavorable, President Emmanuel Macron: 61% favorable/26% unfavorable, Prime Minister Boris Johnson: 64% favorable/25% unfavorable, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: 67% favorable/21% unfavorable all received high marks from American business leaders.

President Biden in the U.K. vs. Prime Minister Boris Johnson

President Joe Biden is experiencing a sky high favorable/unfavorable rating at home and abroad. For example, among surveyed business leaders in the U.K., Biden's favorable rating was 78% favorable/17% unfavorable compared to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose rating was lower at 58% favorable/39% unfavorable.

President Biden in Germany. vs. Chancellor Angela Merkel
Among surveyed business leaders in Germany, Joe Biden continued his popularity abroad with similarly impressive numbers among the German business community. Currently, Biden posted a 77% favorable/15% unfavorable rating. Biden's numbers were much better than Germany' own Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose favorability rating was very good at 68% favorable/29% unfavorable, but not as good as Biden's rating.

President Biden in France. vs. President Emmanuel Macron

In France, President Joe Biden was very popular among all surveyed businesses (73% favorable/18% unfavorable), while his counterpart, French President Emmanuel Macron's favorable rating was much lower at 55% favorable/42% unfavorable.

President Biden in Canada. vs. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Not surprisingly, President Biden was also popular to the north of the U.S. in neighboring Canada (69% favorable/24% unfavorable), while Canada's native son, Justin Trudeau, was almost as popular (64% favorable/33% unfavorable) as the newly minted U.S. president.

The Takeaways

President Biden is riding high on a wave of popularity, especially as he battles the coronavirus at home in the United States, but he is also receiving applause on the International stage, not seen since his Democratic predecessor, President Barack Obama. Biden is so popular among our allies such as France, Germany, U.K. and Canada, because he is the opposite of Donald Trump, and he is looking to reenter the U.S. in the Paris Climate Agreement and JCPOA (a nuclear weapons treaty signed with Iran in 2015).

While Biden is wildly popular at the moment, and more popular than his colleagues in their own home countries, his balloon may burst. We have hit a major milestone in coronavirus deaths (topping 500,000), the vaccine needs to get to more people, kids are not in school full-time, and many people are hurting financially. As time goes on, more voters could harshen their view of Biden, as all of these problems are under his tent now. Blaming Trump can only work for so long. On the other hand, if Biden successfully handles these problems, his favorability at home and abroad could go to the moon! Zogby Analytics will keep up with Joe Biden approval ratings as time continues and events unfold. 

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Zogby Analytics Poll Methodology
Business Leaders
2/11/21 - 2/18/21

Zogby Analytics conducted online surveys of business leaders in Canada, Germany, France, UK, and the U.S..

Using internal and trusted interactive partner resources, thousands of adults were randomly invited to participate in this interactive survey. Each invitation is password coded and secure so that one respondent can only access the survey one time.

Using information based on census data, voter registration figures, CIA fact books and exit polls, we use complex weighting techniques to best represent the demographics of the population being surveyed. Weighted variables may include age, race, gender, region, party, education, and religion.

Based on a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error for country is as follows:

This means that all other things being equal, the identical survey repeated will have results within the margin of error 95 times out of 100.

Subsets of the data have a larger margin of error than the whole data set. As a rule we do not rely on the validity of very small subsets of the data especially sets smaller than 50-75 respondents. At that subset we can make estimations based on the data, but in these cases the data is more qualitative than quantitative.

Additional factors can create error, such as question wording and question order.

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About Zogby Analytics:
Zogby Analytics is respected nationally and internationally for its opinion research capabilities. Since 1984, Zogby has empowered clients with powerful information and knowledge critical for making informed strategic decisions.

The firm conducts multi-phased opinion research engagements for banking and financial services institutions, insurance companies, hospitals and medical centers, retailers and developers, religious institutions, cultural organizations, colleges and universities, IT companies and Federal agencies. Zogby's dedication and commitment to excellence and accuracy are reflected in its state-of-the-art opinion research capabilities and objective analysis and consultation.