WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Over a quarter of Americans are satisfied with the current condition of the country, an increase of nearly 10 percent from July, according to a new poll.
The Gallup poll conducted Aug. 3-7 with a 4 percent margin of error shows 27 percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States, a similar level seen between February through June.
In July, 17 percent of Americans were satisfied -- the lowest percentage since October 2013 amid the federal government shutdown. Americans felt race relations and racism was the most important issue facing the country last month, according to the poll, followed by dissatisfaction with the government and the economy in general.
July was a violent month in the United States. The shootings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and of Philando Castile in Minnesota generated criticism against police, while tensions further escalated after police officers were shot and killed in Louisiana and Dallas.
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In August, the most important issues in the United states, according to the poll, were the economy, dissatisfaction with the government and terrorism, which rose sightly "despite a lack of high-profile terrorist incidents in the past several weeks in the U.S."
"With fewer negative headlines regarding race relations and racism dominating news coverage in the past few weeks, Americans are currently less likely to cite race issues as the nation's most important problem, and their overall satisfaction with the state of the country has rebounded to the level of prior months," Gallup writes. "No single problem dominates as the most important."
