By The Numbers, Was 2013 A Year To Forget?

About half of Americans expect 2014 to be a better year than 2013, according to the recent AP-Times Square New Year’s Eve poll. And judging by the typical questions pollsters use to measure the public mood, it doesn’t seem like it could be much worse.

A look at how the public rated the nation’s performance in 2013:

Right direction? Not quite yet

Whether people think the nation is heading the right way or the wrong way is a basic measure of optimism that pollsters have used for decades to gauge the public mood. In AP-GfK polling this year, few thought the United States had found the right path.
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