June 18 (UPI) — Satisfaction with the direction the United States is heading reached a 12-year high in June, a Gallup poll released Monday revealed.

The monthly satisfaction rate for May and June stands at 38 percent, up from March and April’s 29 percent, the highest reading since it stood at 39 percent in September 2005. The reading was improved entirely through increased satisfaction of Republican and independent respondents, Gallup said.

Republican satisfaction grew to 68 percent, a 14 percentage point change, and independents’ satisfaction to 36 percent, an 11-point improvement. Democrats reported 13 percent satisfaction, unchanged since March and April. .

“The rise in satisfaction over the past two months comes amid a spate of positive economic news, including the shrinking of the unemployment rate to levels last seen in 2000 and the continuation of an economic expansion that is now the second longest on record,” Gallup said in a statement.

Except for the lack of change in Democrats’ responses, all categories saw an improvement in satisfaction. City, suburban and rural residents noted increases, with a 14 percentage point change, from 30 percent to 44 percent, among rural residents. Each age group, gender and education level saw increased levels of satisfaction.

Positive responses from men increased from 37 percent to 45 percent, with those from women increasing from 21 percent to 31 percent.

The Gallup poll results were based on telephone interviews conducted from June 1 to Wednesday, with a random sample of 1,520 adults, ages 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error was plus-or-minus 3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 70 percent cellphone respondents and 30 percent landline respondents.