---
title: "Little Change in Views of Importance of State of the Union"
description: "Overview A plurality of the public (43%) views Barack Obama’s upcoming State of the Union as about as important as past years’ addresses. About a third (32%) say Obama’s speech will be more important than those in past years, while 15% say it will be less important. State of the Union Primer Public Views of […]"
date: "2013-02-11"
authors:
  - name: "Pew Research Center"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/02/11/little-change-in-views-of-importance-of-state-of-the-union/"
categories:
  - "Barack Obama"
  - "George W. Bush"
  - "National Conditions"
datasets:
  - name: "February 7-10 2013 Weekly Survey"
    url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/dataset/february-7-10-2013-weekly-survey/"
---

# Little Change in Views of Importance of State of the Union

## Overview

[![2-11-13 #1](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2013/02/2-11-13-11.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/02/2-11-13-11.png)

A plurality of the public (43%) views Barack Obama’s upcoming State of the Union as about as important as past years’ addresses. About a third (32%) say Obama’s speech will be more important than those in past years, while 15% say it will be less important.

### [State of the Union Primer](https://www.pewresearch.org/2013/02/08/state-of-the-union-2013-pew-research-tip-sheet/)

[Public Views of State of the Union](https://www.pewresearch.org/2013/02/08/state-of-the-union-2013-pew-research-tip-sheet/)

Opinions about the importance of Obama’s State of the Union are little changed from last year or 2011. Last year, 46% expected the address to be about as important as those of past years; 36% said it would be more important and 14% said it would be less important.

These views also are in line with expectations for most of George W. Bush’s State of the Unions. The exceptions were 2002 and 2003, following the 9/11 attacks and before the Iraq war, when majorities viewed Bush’s State of the Union as more important. In 2008, when

[![2-11-13 #2](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2013/02/2-11-13-21.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/02/2-11-13-21.png)

Bush gave his final State of the Union, just 19% viewed it as more important.

As in past years, there are wide partisan differences in opinions about the importance of Obama’s State of the Union address. Far more Democrats (46%) than independents (28%) or Republicans (21%) say Obama’s speech this year will be important than those in prior years.

## About the Survey

The analysis in this report is based on telephone interviews conducted February 7-10, 2013, among a national sample of 1,004 adults 18 years of age or older living in the continental United States (500 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 504 were interviewed on a cell phone, including 254 who had no landline telephone). The survey was conducted by interviewers at Princeton Data Source under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. A combination of landline and cell phone random digit dial samples were used; both samples were provided by Survey Sampling International. Interviews were conducted in English. Respondents in the landline sample were selected by randomly asking for the youngest adult male or female who is now at home. Interviews in the cell sample were conducted with the person who answered the phone, if that person was an adult 18 years of age or older. For detailed information about our survey methodology, see: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/methodology/.

The combined landline and cell phone sample are weighted using an iterative technique that matches gender, age, education, race, Hispanic origin and region to parameters from the 2011 Census Bureau's American Community Survey and population density to parameters from the Decennial Census. The sample also is weighted to match current patterns of telephone status, based on extrapolations from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey. The weighting procedure also accounts for the fact that respondents with both landline and cell phones have a greater probability of being included in the combined sample and adjusts for household size among respondents with a landline phone. Sampling errors and statistical tests of significance take into account the effect of weighting. The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for different groups in the survey:

[![2-11-13 #3](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2013/02/2-11-13-3.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/02/2-11-13-3.png)

Sample sizes and sampling errors for other subgroups are available upon request.

In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.