WASHINGTON (AFP) - Most Americans still feel their country is faring badly, but their ranks have been dwindling since the financial crisis broke last year, a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll has said.

Sixty-three percent of 1,018 adults surveyed October 30-November 1 said things in the United States were going pretty badly to very badly, against 37 percent who thought they were doing fairly well to very well.

But both opinions had been changing gradually since mid-2008, at the start of the financial crisis. In a November 6-9 poll last year, the number of Americans who thought their country was faring very badly peaked at 83 percent, while those who thought things were going well bottomed out at 16 percent.

The latest poll coincided with a Commerce Department announcement last week that the US economy had rebounded from recession in the third quarter, posting its strongest economic growth in two years.

President Barack Obama claimed the upswing was a result of the 787-billion-dollar stimulus package his government approved shortly after he took office in January.

The poll had a three percent margin of error.