President Lee's Approval Rating Hits Record Low at 37%

President Lee Jae-myung's job approval rating has dropped to a record low of 37%, according to a survey released on September 18. Negative evaluations have risen to 56%, the highest level since he took office.

The survey conducted by Gallup Korea from September 15 to 17 among 1,002 eligible voters aged 18 and older found that 37% believe President Lee is performing well, while 56% think he is not. Seven percent of respondents were undecided.

Compared to last week's survey, the approval rating fell from 38% to 37%, a decrease of one percentage point, while the disapproval rating increased from 51% to 56%, a rise of five percentage points. The gap between positive and negative evaluations widened from 13 percentage points to 19.

Among supporters of the Democratic Party, 66% rated his performance positively, while 30% rated it negatively. In the progressive camp, 57% approved and 37% disapproved. In the centrist group, only 38% gave a positive rating, while 56% disapproved. Among those without party affiliation, 25% approved and 57% disapproved.

By gender, 30% of men rated his performance positively, while 64% rated it negatively. For women, 44% approved and 48% disapproved. By age group, approval and disapproval were equal at 47% among those in their 40s, while in their 50s, 46% approved and 49% disapproved. In other age groups, disapproval ratings were higher than approval ratings.

The most common reason for positive evaluations was 'diplomacy' at 26%, followed by 'economy and livelihood' at 11%, 'overall performance' at 6%, and 'policies for the underprivileged and welfare' at 5%.

The leading reason for negative evaluations was 'real estate policy' at 20%, followed by 'personnel issues' at 16%. Other reasons included 'economy and livelihood' at 9%, 'reduction of prosecutorial powers', 'issues of morality and evading personal trials', and 'overall poor performance', each at 5%. The real estate issue has consistently ranked as the top reason for negative evaluations since the fourth week of July.

In party support, the Democratic Party stands at 40%, while the People Power Party is at 27%, creating a 13-point gap between the two parties. The Justice Party and the Reform Party each received 3%, while the Progressive Party garnered 1%. The percentage of undecided voters is 25%.

In evaluations of party leaders, Kim Min-seok of the Democratic Party received a positive rating of 30% and a negative rating of 48%. Jang Dong-hyuk of the People Power Party had a positive rating of 21% and a negative rating of 61%.

This survey was conducted using randomly selected virtual numbers provided by the three major mobile carriers, through telephone interviews. The response rate was 9.8%, and the margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. More details can be found on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.