The latest SLOTS polling for July 2024 shows that 72% of Sri Lankans continue to say that the country is heading in the wrong direction, while only 8% believe it is on the right track.

Public views towards the country’s direction have worsened since July 2023, driven by a steady decline in uncommitted respondents. The number who think the country is moving in the right direction has remained below 5%. However, the July estimates show a little improvement, with 8% now thinking the country is on the right track.

Sri Lankans are more likely to think the country is headed in the wrong direction than people in any other country where this is polled. In June–July 2024, a global average of 62% of adults polled by IPSOS in 29 countries thought their country was headed in the wrong direction, compared with 93% in Sri Lanka.¹

Public opinion towards the country’s direction differs slightly by age in 2024 while younger adults (ages 18–29) and those aged 30–44 more likely to think the country is heading in the wrong direction compared to older adults.

Methodology

Question wording

SLOTS polls the public’s outlook on the overall direction of the country by asking people: “Would you say things in the country are headed in the right direction or the wrong direction?”. Respondents are also allowed not to answer or to say they “Don’t know” or are “Not sure”. The percentages saying the country is moving in the right or wrong directions is based on all those who were interviewed, so numbers for right and wrong tracks will not sum to 100% because of don’t knows and refusals.

The SLOTS right direction/wrong direction question wording follows that of well-regarded national surveys in other countries, including Ipsos and Morning Consult. An alternative approach is to ask people if they are “satisfied” with the way things are going in the country, which is the approach used by Gallup, Pew, and others. Data from the United States show that these two alternative measures usually track each other closely, but there have been short periods when they differ. The commonest reason appears to be partisan differences in how the public views the government’s ability to manage current problems.²

Weighting

SLOTS uses a hybrid sample of an existing national panel that was recruited face-to-face in 2019 and a sample of respondents reached by random-digit dialling (RDD) of mobile numbers. To minimize sample bias, estimates are based on weighting respondents to match the national population for age, sex, sector, ethnicity, religion, education, socioeconomic status ranking, and geographical location. Weighting is done by propensity weighting and iterative proportional fitting (raking).

Technical notes

¹ These numbers differ from the preceding ones as they exclude don’t knows and refusals from the denominator when computing the percentages. This is to ensure comparability with the Ipsos estimates for other countries.

² As discussed in Pew Research Center, Unusually Wide Gap in ’Satisfaction,’ ’Right Direction’ Measures, 2009 03/26. 25   April 2024. Available from: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2009/03/26/unusually-wide-gap-in-satisfaction-right-direction-measures/