Americans' Views of U.S. Life Compared With Other Nations

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Asked to compare the U.S. to other modern, industrialized nations on a number of dimensions, Americans are most positive about individual freedoms and least positive about the U.S. healthcare system. Sixty-four percent of Americans say that U.S. freedoms are the best or above average, while just 27% say the same about the healthcare system. Majorities also say the U.S. compares favorably on quality of life and the ability of people to get ahead while less than half say their economic system and system of government are above average compared with other modern nations.

	Best/Above average	Average	Worst/Below average
	%	%	%
Individual freedoms	64	26	11
The quality of life	55	32	13
The opportunity for people to get ahead	51	28	21
The economic system	43	39	18
The system of government	40	32	27
The healthcare system	27	27	45
GALLUP, Aug 6-12, 2018

The healthcare system is the only one of the six items measured for which more say the U.S. is the worst or below average than say the U.S. is the best or above average.

These results, based on Gallup interviewing conducted Aug. 6-12, update an initial assessment from December 2012, just about a month after President Barack Obama won re-election. Americans' views across these six dimensions have become slightly more negative, with an average 47% rating the U.S. above average or best, compared with an average 51% above average/best rating in 2012.

More specifically, Americans' perceptions of how the U.S. stacks up relative to other countries on individual freedoms and quality of life are significantly more negative now than six years ago. Evaluations of the healthcare system, the opportunity to get ahead and the system of government have all slipped marginally, although within the margin of error.

The exception to this increased negativity is the economic system, now rated as the best or above average compared with other modern nations by 43% of Americans, up from 34% in December 2012.

	2012	2018	Change
	%	%	pct. pts.
Economic system	34	43	+9
Healthcare system	29	27	-2
Opportunity to get ahead	55	51	-4
System of government	46	40	-6
Quality of life	65	55	-10
Individual freedoms	77	64	-13
Dates of Interviewing: Dec 14-17, 2012 + Aug 6-12, 2018
GALLUP

Republicans Much More Positive Than Democrats Across All Dimensions

As is true with so much else in American society today, there are sharp partisan divisions in these ratings of aspects of U.S. society. Republicans are significantly more positive than Democrats about each of the six dimensions, with independents' views falling between these two groups.

Currently, a majority of Republicans rate the U.S. as above average or the best on five of the six dimensions, with healthcare the only one not to make the majority cut among Republicans.

By contrast, well less than half of Democrats see the U.S. as the best or above average on five of the measures, with the exception being individual freedoms, seen as above average or the best by 53% of Democrats.

	Republican	Independent	Democrat
	%	%	%
System of government
2018	62	37	27
2012	45	41	51
	+17	-4	-24
Healthcare system
2018	43	20	19
2012	32	27	28
	+11	-7	-9
Economic system
2018	66	40	27
2012	29	33	39
	+37	+7	-8
Individual freedoms
2018	85	60	53
2012	72	75	81
	+13	-15	-28
Opportunity to get ahead
2018	76	49	32
2012	55	50	60
	+21	-1	-28
Quality of life
2018	78	52	41
2012	64	64	69
	+14	-12	-28
Dates of Interviewing: Dec. 14-17, 2012 + Aug. 6-12, 2018
GALLUP

This pattern by which Republicans see each of these six dimensions in a more positive light than Democrats marks a substantial change from 2012. At that point, with a Democratic president in the White House, Democrats were at least marginally more positive than Republicans on five of the six -- the healthcare system being the exception.

This flip in the relative positivity of Republicans and Democrats about aspects of the country follows the same pattern observed on a number of national dimensions when Donald Trump took over as president in January 2017 -- including the economy, the way things are going in the country and the way the nation is being governed.

Still, it is important to note that the partisan gap in rating these aspects of American society has grown significantly over the past six years.

The Republican-to-Democratic spread on the six dimensions has gone from an average of five percentage points in 2012 to 35 points today. Back in 2012, Republicans averaged a 50% "above average or the best" rating across the six measures compared with 48% of independents and 55% of Democrats. Now, 68% of Republicans say that the U.S. is best or above average across all dimensions, compared with an average 43% of independents and 33% of Democrats.

Bottom Line

Trump has promised to make America great again, but it's not always easy to decide what measure of "greatness" to use in assessing progress along these lines. One basis for evaluation is how Americans compare their country to other modern industrialized nations on a series of dimensions.

A substantial majority of Americans would agree that the United States maintains a better position than comparable nations on individual freedoms, while slight majorities agree on the quality of life and the ability to get ahead. America appears to not be so great when it comes to Americans' assessments of the nation's economic system, system of government and, in particular, the healthcare system.

Although Americans' economic confidence and satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. have become more positive since 2012, Americans' ratings of the U.S. compared with other modern, industrialized nations on the six dimensions tested in the current research have dropped. This reflects the significantly more negative views of Democrats, a drop in positivity not compensated for by the uptick in positivity among Republicans.

Americans' low ratings of their nation's healthcare system -- with significantly more saying that it is below average or worse than saying it is above average or the best -- is noteworthy, in that it was rated almost as poorly in 2012. It is also the only dimension for which less than half of all three political groups say it is better than other modern nations. These findings stand out given the huge emphasis on healthcare over the period of time encompassing Gallup's assessment of these measures -- with the Affordable Care legislation passed into law by a unified Democratic government in 2010 and subsequent attempts by the current Republican majority to dismantle parts of the ACA since 2017. Clearly, many Americans continue to believe that other industrialized nations have managed to find better solutions to the healthcare issue than has been the case in the U.S.

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