5.19.25 – Baton Rouge Business Report
Findings from LSU’s 2025 Louisiana Survey show trending improvement in Louisiana residents’ mood about the direction of the state.
“This year, we’re seeing signs of optimism,” says Louisiana Survey director Michael Henderson. “A growing number of Louisianians now say the state is heading in the right direction. It’s a modest shift, but a meaningful one, given how entrenched negative sentiment has been in recent years.”
After the share of respondents saying the state is heading in the wrong direction reached 66% in the 2022 telephone version and 68% in the 2023 online version—each setting a record high in the history of the Louisiana Survey—those shares have dropped significantly in both versions of this year’s survey.
This year, respondents in the online survey split evenly between those who think the state is heading in the wrong direction (50%) and those who think it is heading in the right direction (50%).
Similarly, confidence in state government is also rising. In both versions of this year’s survey, the share of respondents who say they are either “very confident” or “somewhat confident” in the government of Louisiana to address their concerns effectively grew by 14 percentage points from 2022 to 2025 (32% to 46% in the online version and 25% to 39% in the telephone version).
The Louisiana Survey polled 507 adult residents from across the state via telephone about how they view their government and its policies. The survey was conducted from March 10 to April 21, and the total sample has a plus or minus 5.7% margin of error. Additionally, the Louisiana Survey sampled 500 adult residents in a parallel survey administered online. The survey was conducted from February 26 to March 13, and the total sample has a plus or minus 6% margin of error.