Sri Lanka government approval rating increases to 65%: Survey
February 15, 2026 01:55 pm
The approval rating of the government has increased to 65% in early-February 2026, in the latest round of the Gallup style “Mood of the Nation” poll conducted by Verité Research.
With a ±3 percentage point error margin, the approval rating has remained statistically stable from the 62% polled a year ago, Verité Research.
Meanwhile, the disapproval rating remained low and unchanged from what it was in the previous poll in February 2025.
According to Verité Research, for the first time in the poll’s four-year history, the share of those who rated current economic conditions as “good” or “excellent” exceeded those who rated them as “poor” with perceptions of the economic outlook also improving.
Furthermore, those who said the economy was “getting better” increased to 64% from 55% one year ago, according to Verité Research.
Moreover, all of the sentiments on the economy are aggregated into an Economic Confidence Index ranging from minus 100 to +100. The index registered +36, a substantial improvement from +14 a year ago.
Additionally, a majority (59%) have stated that they were satisfied with “the way things are going” in the country, at present.
This marks the first time in the last four-years of polling that satisfaction levels have risen above 50%.
In various other aspects where the present government was evaluated against past governments, the highest positive evaluation was for reducing drugs and crime—even more so than for reducing corruption, Verité Research said based on its survey.
The latest poll was based on a nationally representative, multi-stage, randomised sample of 1,048 Sri Lankan adults from separate households, and was conducted from 24 January 2026 to 03 February 2026. It was designed to have a maximum sampling error margin of ±3.0 pp at a 95% confidence level, Verité Research added.
