A national poll released on Friday found 50 percent of Americans believe the United States is running well, the first time that at least half of respondents answered positively in more than six years.

The CNN/ORC International poll asked the question: “How well are things going in the country today – very well, fairly well, pretty badly or very badly?”

The latest survey, of 1,012 adults from April 5-7, showed an exact 50/50 split between those who answered very well and fairly well versus those who answered pretty badly or very badly, CNN and ORC International said, posting results of the poll on CNN’s website.

The last time the number came in above 50 percent was January 2007, more than a year before the collapse of Wall Street titans such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, before the extent of the sub-prime mortgage quandary was widely known, and before the financial crisis sent the U.S. economy into recession from December 2007 to June 2009.

The January 2007 poll showed 57 percent of respondents saw the United States operating very well or fairly well versus 42 percent who saw the country running pretty badly or very badly.

The survey results turned negative in the next poll in April 2007 and grew worse through November 2008, when in a poll taken in the days after Barack Obama was elected president some 83 percent of respondents answered pretty badly or fairly badly.

(Reuters)