‘Pops Off the Screen!’ CNN Data Guru Reveals Stunning Economic Polling Stat

CNN data guru Harry Enten discussed a stunning finding from recent polling on the economy Friday, arguing that the stat “pops off the screen” during a segment with anchor Sara Sidner.

“You said you found something surprising about how Americans feel about the economy,” observed Sidner at the outset of the segment, prompting Enten.

“Yeah, quite surprising. I would honestly, sometimes you look at the numbers and you just go, ‘Whoa, it kind of pops off the screen!’ This is going to be a contrarian take. What are we talking about? Well, you know, Matt was mentioning about the econ[omy] playing such an important role in last year’s presidential election, the top problem facing the U.S. is economic, per Gallup,” began Enten.

“Last year, look at this, 43% at this time, 43% of Americans said the top problem was economic. Come to this side of the screen, it’s just considerably different. We’re talking about 24%, we’re talking about a drop of near 20 points. And more than that, we’re talking about across all of the different political groups, right? Democrats, independents, Republicans, we see that the percentage who say the top problem is economic has been falling, has been falling, has been falling through the floor,” he continued. “And more that that, you know, we’re taking about inflation. The percentage of Americans who say that the top problem is inflation has also been falling. Which is, I think, very much surprising given all the news that we are hearing about the economy.”

“How does this compare to, like, the historical look at how people feel about the economy?” followed up Sidner.

Enten answered:

Okay, so you know, let’s talk about, we’ll go through history, right? Let’s take a look, the top problem facing the United States is economic. In the average midterm election, it’s 35%. It’s 35%, look at where we are now: Again, it’s 24%. It is lower. Fewer Americans right now are saying the top problem is economic than historically have said that the top problem is economic.

So it’s not only that the top problem being economic is lower than we were at this time last year. It is lower than we have historically been, despite all the news about how the economy is supposedly softening. So you just look at these numbers, and you just go to yourself, wait a minute, there’s something going on here with the American public, whereby you’re getting all this economic news, but yet the percentage of  Americans who say the top problem is economic has actually been falling, and is lower than it normally is.

Watch above via CNN.