In this week’s Economist/YouGov poll:

Plus polling on the war with Iran, the death penalty, unexpected expenses, what explains success, job happiness, and a new passport design. Including:

  • 28% of Americans strongly or somewhat support the war with Iran and 60% oppose it
    • That's a slight decline in support from last week when 30% supported the war and 59% opposed it
  • 49% of Americans favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder and 26% oppose it
    • If the death penalty is imposed, a majority of Americans say lethal injection should be used; 66% say it should and 16% say it should not
    • There is less support for allowing execution by firing squad (30% vs. 52%), hanging (23% vs. 63%), or electrocution (28% vs. 52%)
  • 16% of Americans say it would be very easy to meet an unexpected $1,000 expense, while 19% say it would be somewhat easy, 26% somewhat difficult, 20% very difficult, and 19% impossible
  • 37% of Americans say the more important reason for why some people are richer than others is whether they come from a privileged background rather than how hard they work, while 17% say it's more how hard they work; 33% say both factors are equally important
  • Among Americans with jobs, 16% say they're very happy with their job and 42% say they're happy but not very happy; 30% say they're neither happy nor unhappy, 7% that they're unhappy, and 5% that they're very unhappy
  • Only 14% of Americans approve of the design for a new commemorative U.S. passport featuring a portrait of Donald Trump. 62% disapprove of the new design

See the toplines and crosstabs for the May 1 - 4, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll

Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,573 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, geographic region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3.5%.

Image: Getty (Nathan Howard / Stringer)

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