Americans' Confidence in Institutions Edges Up

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' confidence in the nation's major institutions has edged up in 2017, after registering historical lows over the past three years. Newspapers, public schools and organized labor, in particular, have improved in public esteem. The average percentage of Americans expressing "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in 14 institutions is at 35%, up from 31% in 2014 and 32% in 2015 and 2016.

With this year's uptick, Americans' confidence in key U.S. institutions is close to the historical average for the 14 institutions Gallup has asked about since 1993 (37%). Confidence in institutions was generally higher prior to 2007 than in the years since, and current levels are also well below the high point of the 43% confidence registered in 2001, 2003 and 2004.

Confidence Up Most in Newspapers, Public Schools and Organized Labor

This year's June 7-11 update shows that confidence is nominally higher in 10 of the 14 specific institutions included in the long-term average, although just three of the changes are statistically significant: the rise in confidence in newspapers (up seven percentage points), public schools (six points) and organized labor (five points).

In addition to the 14 institutions in Gallup's long-term trend, this year's measure included small business, added to the list in 2007, and confidence in internet news, asked about only two times previously.

	June 2016	June 2017	Change: 2016 to 2017
	%	%	pct. pts.
Newspapers	20	27	7
Public schools	30	36	6
Banks	27	32	5
Organized labor	23	28	5
U.S. Supreme Court	36	40	4
Criminal justice system	23	27	4
Congress	9	12	3
Television news	21	24	3
Big business	18	21	3
Small business	68	70	2
Police	56	57	1
Church or organized religion	41	41	0
Military	73	72	-1
Medical system	39	37	-2
Presidency	36	32	-4
News on the internet	n/a	16	n/a
Gallup

 

Overall, U.S. adults say they have the most confidence in the military, as has typically been the case since the mid-1980s. Americans have almost as much confidence in small business as they do in the military. Confidence levels drop off substantially after these two, with only one other institution -- the police -- getting a combined "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence rating over 50%.

At the other end of the spectrum, two institutions have confidence ratings below 20% -- Congress, last on the list with a confidence rating of 12%, and news on the internet, at 16%. Forthcoming Gallup.com stories will discuss the trends in confidence on several of these institutions in more detail.

Republicans' and Democrats' Confidence in Institutions Shift This Year

The overall uptick in confidence this year is primarily the result of increased confidence among Republicans, paralleling the increased GOP optimism noted in economic confidence and satisfaction with the way things are going in the nation.

Republican and Republican-leaning independents' average confidence in the 14 major institutions edged up to 37% from 30% last year. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, confronted with a Republican president and Republican-controlled Congress, have roughly the same confidence in the 14 institutions as last year -- 33% compared with 34%.

Republicans and Democrats essentially flipped their confidence ratings of the presidency this year. Republicans' confidence surged 46 points compared with 2016, while Democrats' confidence fell by 49 points. Last year, with a Democrat in the White House, Democrats were much more confident in the presidency than were Republicans. This year, Republicans' confidence in the presidency is 50 points higher than that of Democrats.

	June 2016	June 2017	Change: 2016 to 2017
	%	%	pct. pts.
MILITARY
Republicans/leaners	83	82	-1
Democrats/leaners	65	64	-1
SMALL BUSINESS
Republicans/leaners	71	73	2
Democrats/leaners	68	67	-1
POLICE
Republicans/leaners	68	73	5
Democrats/leaners	48	45	-3
CHURCH OR ORGANIZED RELIGION
Republicans/leaners	51	52	1
Democrats/leaners	31	34	3
U.S. SUPREME COURT
Republicans/leaners	29	40	11
Democrats/leaners	43	43	0
MEDICAL SYSTEM
Republicans/leaners	36	33	-3
Democrats/leaners	41	40	-1
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Republicans/leaners	21	30	9
Democrats/leaners	36	41	5
PRESIDENCY
Republicans/leaners	14	60	46
Democrats/leaners	59	10	-49
BANKS
Republicans/leaners	28	36	8
Democrats/leaners	25	30	5
ORGANIZED LABOR
Republicans/leaners	15	17	2
Democrats/leaners	30	37	7
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Republicans/leaners	25	29	4
Democrats/leaners	22	27	5
NEWSPAPERS
Republicans/leaners	15	12	-3
Democrats/leaners	25	41	16
TELEVISION NEWS
Republicans/leaners	14	14	0
Democrats/leaners	27	31	4
BIG BUSINESS
Republicans/leaners	22	28	6
Democrats/leaners	15	14	-1
INTERNET NEWS
Republicans/leaners	n/a	14	n/a
Democrats/leaners	n/a	16	n/a
CONGRESS
Republicans/leaners	6	14	8
Democrats/leaners	11	11	0
Gallup, June 7-11, 2017

 

A similar pattern is seen for the U.S. Supreme Court. Republicans' confidence in the Supreme Court jumped 11 points this year, after Donald Trump's appointment of Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Antonin Scalia, while Democrats' confidence stayed exactly the same.

Perhaps in reaction to Trump's vociferous criticism of the media, Democrats this year express significantly higher levels of confidence in newspapers than they did last year, while Republicans' confidence stayed roughly the same -- and much lower than Democrats.

Bottom Line

Several important findings emerge from Gallup's annual update of Americans' confidence in the nation's major institutions this year.

First, the uptick in Republicans' average confidence resulting from the election of President Trump was not offset by a decrease in confidence among Democrats, leaving the population, as a whole, more confident than in previous years.

Second, despite this increased confidence, Americans are still skeptical of most of the major institutions that make up U.S. society. Major institutions have an average 35% "great deal/quite a lot" confidence rating overall, and only three institutions garner a confidence rating above 50%. Major institutions such as big business, the criminal justice system and banks get high confidence ratings from less than one-third of the public.

Finally, the dismal level of public confidence in Congress -- with 12% of Americans saying they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the nation's legislative body and 44% saying they have very little confidence -- highlights what Americans themselves say is the nation's most important problem: a dysfunctional government that has lost much of its legitimacy in the eyes of the people it serves.

Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.