According to the Mood of the Nation survey, public trust in the government is down

According to the latest "Mood of the Nation" survey report conducted by Verité Research in collaboration with Vanguard Survey (Pvt) Ltd, a significant decline has been reported in public approval of the current government and public confidence in national economic indicators. Government Approval, which stood at 62% in February 2025 and 65% in February 2026, has dropped to 50% (specifically 49.83%) by July 2026.

Here, a notable change is that the percentage of people who disapprove of the government's performance has more than doubled, from 15% in the previous round to 31.40%.

Public attitudes towards the country's economic situation have also significantly worsened, with the positive outlook on the current state of the economy dropping from 57% previously to 38.00%. In contrast, a majority of 55.59% of respondents stated that the current economic situation is poor. The number of people who believed that future economic prospects would improve has fallen from 64% to 41.63%, while those who said the economy would worsen has increased to 40.29%. Overall satisfaction in the country has also decreased from 59% to 38%, and the Economic Confidence Index, calculated on a scale of -100 to +100, which was at -39 in mid-2024 and then positive from February 2025, has now fallen back to -8.

This survey, conducted using the Gallup methodology from July 11 to 30, 2026, utilized a randomly selected sample of 2,013 adults covering the entire island. The margin of sampling error is planned at 2.21% under a 95% confidence level, and due to some respondents refraining from answering, the sum of some percentages is less than 100%. Unlike other social indicator surveys that reported 76% and 68% satisfaction with the President and Prime Minister respectively, this survey assessed the performance of the entire government, which is close to the 45% received for ruling party MPs in the social indicator survey.

Verité Research, an independent study institute based in Colombo, was founded in 2010 by its Executive Director and Head of Research, Dr. Nishan de Mel. Dr. de Mel, who holds degrees in Economics from Harvard and Oxford Universities and has served as a lecturer at Oxford University, previously held positions in Presidential Task Forces on Health, Alcohol and Gambling Regulation, and Social Protection, as well as at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies. Vanguard Survey (Pvt) Ltd, the technical partner for this survey, is a private market and social research firm that has also worked with international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Both organizations state that they are not affiliated with any political party or government and have presented research-based proposals to major political currents, including NPP and SJB, in national policy formulation. However, amidst the heated political climate in Sri Lanka, they have faced various political accusations from the United National Party, NPP/JVP, and other political factions during different administrations, as well as regarding foreign funding and liberal financial policies, yet they strive to protect the independence of the data presented.