Currently two-thirds of adult South Africans (66%) believe that the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup is going to be a success and just below six in every ten (56%) think that, in general, the country is heading in the right direction. A third (35%) agrees that their families are better off than a year ago. Looking ahead, almost half (46%) say that, in a year's time, they will be better off than today.

These are some of the findings in the recent Socio-Political Trends survey conducted by Ipsos Markinor. This survey is part of the "Pulse of the People" public opinion series and is conducted bi-annually amongst a nationally representative sample of 3500 adult South Africans. Fieldwork for the current study was done from 21 October to 13 November 2009.

Respondents were randomly selected according to strict scientific procedures in order to achieve a representative sample of the South African adult population. Depending on the response rate, the sample error for the poll is between 0.72% and 1.67%.
When asked to give their opinion on the statement "The 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup hosted by South Africa will be a success" the findings show that South Africans are putting their support behind this very important event in our country:

Although one in every ten (9%) is not sure (yet), only a small percentage (8%) of adult South Africans believes that the World Cup is not going to be a success.

When asked whether they think that the prices for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup are too high, 45% of South Africans agreed. Only 12% of South Africans disagreed with this statement, echoing concerns expressed in the media that the price of the tickets might be an inhibiting factor for South Africans.

However, a third (33%) agreed with the statement "I am planning to watch at least one soccer match at a stadium during the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup hosted by South Africa". Not surprisingly, a larger proportion (41%) of males than of females (24%) indicated that they plan to see a live match.

With South Africa recovering from the global economic recession, hosting the FIFA Soccer World Cup and entering the second decade of the millennium, 2010 is going to be an exciting year.

Supporting the positive feelings about soccer, over half (56%) of South African voters think the country is heading in the right direction. This group grew substantially over the last six months: in May 2009 only 43% thought the country was heading in the right direction. A year ago, in November 2008, this proportion stood at only 38%.

More than six in every ten (63%) of ANC voters think that the country is heading in the right direction whereas only a third (32%) of DA supporters shares this opinion. Among the other opposition parties the mood is more positive and just over half (53%) of COPE supporters and 45% of IFP supporters agree that the country is going in the right direction.

More males than females believe that the country is heading in the right direction as shown in the table below. Females are more uncertain about this issue.

Looking towards the future, when asked how they think their families‟ lives will be like in a year's time, it is interesting to see that as people get older they get more pessimistic about the future as illustrated in the table below.

Almost six in every ten (58%) of adult South Africans believe that their children and the children of family and friends have a bright future ahead of them while 29% believe that their children have a bleak future ahead of them. Black people are the most optimistic (61%) when thinking about their children's future in this country while white people are the least optimistic (41%) as shown in the table below.

However, if these opinions are compared to those expressed in earlier surveys, it is clear that South Africans look towards their children‟s future with more hope than was the case a few years ago. This bodes well for the future.