Institutions
Explore Gallup's research.
Americans' confidence in the police has increased eight points since last year, but average confidence across 14 U.S. institutions remains historically low.
Lumina and Gallup find Americans are more confident in community colleges than four-year universities. The greatest difference between the two is cost.
Americans now split into roughly equal thirds as to whether they have a lot of (36%), some (32%) or very little (32%) confidence in higher education.
Americans' lessened confidence in society's institutions and norms may affect society's ability to deal with crucial external and internal threats.
Americans' opinions of the retail and pharmaceutical industries have suffered the most over the past year, with Democrats increasingly negative about retail and Republicans about the pharmaceutical industry.
Forty percent of Americans approve of the job the U.S. Supreme Court is doing, unchanged from the record low measured last fall.
Americans express the lowest level of confidence in their military in decades. Republicans are still the most likely to be confident in the military.
After slipping in 2021, Republicans' confidence in big business remains at that lower level in 2023, according to Gallup's annual Confidence in Institutions measure.
Gallup finds public faith in many societal institutions holding steady at or near their record lows. Majorities view small business and the military positively.
Americans' average positive rating of 25 business and industry sectors has fallen to its lowest point since 2008 during the Great Recession.
U.S. confidence in public schools has sunk back to where it was pre-pandemic, but Democrats' confidence is up while Republicans' is down.
Americans' confidence in most major U.S. institutions has fallen in the past year, and confidence collectively is at a new low in Gallup's trend.
Confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court is down 11 percentage points this year, falling to a new low of 25%.
Data suggest that increasing trust in the federal government could have a positive impact on COVID-19 outcomes.
A new UNICEF study reveals new insights into the changing nature of childhood, including how young people are staying informed and the institutions they trust.