American Pride Hits Record Low in Two New Polls
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- AP-NORC poll found pride in US democracy dropped 14 percentage points (42% in February 2017 to 28% now), with pride in the armed forces falling 19 points and pride in US history declining 14 points over the same period
- Gallup polling shows only 53% of US adults are 'extremely' or 'very' proud to be American, the lowest reading in a trend dating to 2001
- Partisan gap is stark: 70% of Republicans describe themselves as 'extremely' proud to be American, compared with just 14% of Democrats and 28% of independents
- Democrats are driving most of the decline in patriotic sentiment, though some movement exists among independents, while Republican pride has held steady
- Black Americans are far more likely to identify by race than nationality, with 73% saying their race or ethnicity is 'extremely' or 'very' important to their identity—higher than the share who say the same about being American
- Age gap in national identity runs wide: about 75% of Americans 60 and older say being American is highly important to them, compared with roughly one-third of adults under 30
- The AP-NORC survey of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20 using NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points
Why it matters: The 19-point drop in pride in the armed forces and the 14-point drop in pride in democracy since 2017 show the decline cuts into institutions once considered unifying—not just partisan politics. With 70% of Republicans 'extremely' proud versus 14% of Democrats, patriotism itself has become a tribal marker, complicating any cross-partisan push for national unity.
