As U.S. President Barack Obama began his second term, a latest poll showed that Americans are as negative about the state of the nation and its prospects as they have been in more than three decades.

Thirty-nine percent of Americans rated the current status of the United States at the positive end of a zero to 10 scale, fewer than at any point since 1979, according to the Gallup poll conducted on Jan. 7-10.

Forty-eight percent of Americans were upbeat in their predictions of where the United States will be in five years, but the number is also lower than at any time since 1979.

In the poll, respondents were asked to rate their feelings about the country presently, in five years, and five years ago using a zero to 10 scale, where zero equals the worst possible situation and 10 equals the best possible situation.

The 39 percent of Americans who give a six to 10 rating when asked to evaluate the nation's current status is similar to the 37 percent who said the same three years ago. Prior to that, assessments were generally more positive, including a 73 percent six to 10 rating in January 2001 -- the highest on record, Gallup said.

The three previous points in time when ratings were as low as or lower than the 2013 rating were the 34 percent in 1979, 33 percent in 1974 and 39 percent in 1971.

The 1979 measure came at a time when the economy was in bad shape and inflation was rampant, while the 1974 measure came in the midst of the Watergate scandal. When Gallup first asked the question in 1959, 68 percent of Americans rated the state of the nation in the six to 10 range, Gallup said.

The 48 percent who give a six to 10 ranking for the status of the nation five years from now is tied with the 1979 measure as the lowest in Gallup's history of asking the question since 1959.

Additionally, the 40 percent who give a negative rating of zero to four when asked to look ahead is lower than at any point in history. These negative ratings include 10 percent of those who said the situation of the country in five years will be zero, the worst they can imagine.

The poll demonstrated that Obama is expected to face tough challenges in his second term in office, as less than four in 10 Americans rated the nation's current situation as positive.

Indeed, the U.S. economy, reeling from the worst recession since the Great Depression, is still plagued by sluggish recovery, high unemployment and spiraling debt.

Fierce fights over fiscal problems and immigration reforms are looming for the early months of the second term of Obama, whose newly announced gun control measures are also expected to meet political resistance on the Capitol Hill.