Thirty-seven percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States, a percentage that hasn't been higher since 2005, the results of a Gallup poll published Thursday indicate. Photo by Olivier Douliery/UPI | License Photo

May 17 (UPI) -- Thirty-seven percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States, the highest rate since 2005, according to results of a Gallup poll published Thursday.

According to the Gallup survey, the rise in satisfaction this past month from 29 percent in April has been attributable to a large increase among political independents, from 26 percent to 35 percent, and a smaller increase among Republicans, from 57 percent to 63 percent.


Meanwhile, 14 percent of Democrats are satisfied, essentially unchanged from the past three months, when 13 percent of Democrats said they were satisfied.

Gallup speculated the results could indicate trouble ahead for Democrats.

"If satisfaction remains where it is or increases, as opposed to falling back as it did after the increase in February this year, it could aid the Republican Party in the 2018 midterm elections," Gallup said.

American satisfaction began a downward trend in 2005 during the second Iraq War and after Hurricane Katrina, while a major economic recession, partisan gridlock and other factors helped keep satisfaction levels low in subsequent years, Gallup said.

Overall satisfaction still remains significantly low compared to December 2000, when Gallup found that 51 percent of Americans were satisfied.

The poll figures were based on a random sample of 1,024 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states. The margin of sampling error is plus-or-minus four percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. Gallup conducted the poll May 1-10.

SurveyMonkey poll released results of another poll Thursday, determining that 13 percent of Americans consider President Donald Trump to be honest and trustworthy.

Trump's score related to honesty and trustworthiness was the lowest among other traits the poll measured, including the ability to get things done, whether he is tough enough for the job and if he stands up for his beliefs.

The SurveyMonkey poll is based on a survey of 929,225 interviews conducted between Feb. 1 and May 9.