A survey has indicated that 82% of white American evangelical Protestant Christians would vote for President Donald Trump or lean towards voting for him in the 2020 election despite concerns over his job approval ratings.

The Pew survey was conducted among registered voters, and is an increase from the 77% of white evangelical Protestant voters who said they backed Trump after the 2016 presidential elections.

The new survey indicates that an increasing number of people are concerned over the way Trump has been leading the country amid the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the widespread protests over racial injustice.

Over two months, the president's approval rating dropped by 6% among white evangelicals, but remained relatively high at 72%.

Meanwhile, Trump's rival for the 2020 election, Joe Biden, has indicated that his campaign would be courting evangelical voters, however, just 17% have suggested they plan to vote for him rather than Trump. That is just 1% above the 16% of white evangelicals who voted for Hillary Clinton at the 2016 election.

Figures among white evangelical voters are troubling for Biden, with 26% saying that Biden would make a "poor" president, where as many as 49% believe he would make a "terrible" president.

The figure among black Protestant voters, however, are strongly in favour of Joe Biden, with 88% suggesting they would back the Democratic candidate in the election, and just 8% saying they would vote for Trump.

The survey found that 54% of black Protestants believe Biden would make a good or great president. Just 8% stated that they thought Biden would be a poor or terrible leader.