A new Gallup poll shows a record-low 58% of American adults say they are extremely or very proud to be American. This drop is mostly led by people who identify as Democrats or Independents.
Not so proud to be an American
The poll shows that 58% is down nine percentage points from a year ago and five points below the prior low from 2020.
Only 36% of people who identify as Democrats said they felt very or extremely proud to be an American. That’s the second time this number has fallen below 50% with the other drops happening during the first Trump administration.
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“There are a lot of freedoms that we are guaranteed in this country, which is something to be proud of,” 35-year-old Denise Mylin of Havre de Grace, Maryland, told Straight Arrow News. “That being said, it does feel, over the last couple of years, that there are a lot of guaranteed rights that are supposed to be the foundation of that patriotism that are slipping, or are not as guarded as they should be, or as protected as they should be, and as they have been.”
Independents have also reached a low point on the pride scale, with only 53% saying they are very or extremely proud. That’s down seven points from last year, which was the previous low.
“We’ve basically gotten almost nothing done for 20 years,” Morris Fiorina, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, told Straight Arrow News. “So, I can’t really blame Americans for being un-confident about their government or really feeling, you know, what’s there to be patriotic about?”
The drop in American pride coincides with waning support for the job President Donald Trump is doing. A recent Yahoo/YouGov poll of nearly 1,600 people found that 56% disapprove of the president’s performance.
GOP remains proud
Republicans’ level of national pride has remained high since polling began in 2001, currently sitting at 92%, up from 85% last year.
“I’m proud to be an American,” 32-year-old Andrew Weglein of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told Straight Arrow News. “You can live in a big city, where there’s a bunch to do, or you can live out in the countryside, where the cost of living is pretty low. As far as feeling safe in my day-to-day, being able to carry a pistol legally, or you know, local police, our military, I’d say, I’m proud to still be an American.”
Republicans’ national pride has only dropped below 90% three times in the poll’s history. Once in 2016, at the end of former President Barack Obama’s second term, and from 2020 to 2024 during the Biden administration.
The highest level of support, regardless of party, was in 2002, following the 9/11 attacks, when 91% of people said they were very or extremely proud to be an American. That number repeated in 2004 but has not reached 90% since then.
“It put me in mind of another set of polls. If you look at the trust in government and confidence in government, that’s been declining since the ’60s,” Fiorina said.
Fiorina says the lack of partisanship also contributes to Americans feeling less patriotic.
“You think back to Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill in 1983. Republican President, Democratic Speaker of the House,” Fiorina said. “They got together, and they saved Social Security for a generation. And three years later, they got together, and they had comprehensive immigration reform. The last time we’ve ever done that. They had a major tax reform bill. Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich balanced the budget. You know, despite partisanship, they got stuff done.”
Generational gap
The most staggering difference in pride came when viewed through a generational lens.
The poll showed 83% of the Silent Generation (born before 1946) were very or extremely proud to be an American. That’s compared to just 41% of Gen Z (born 1997-2012) saying the same thing.
Millennials (born 1980-1996) were the most split, with 58% saying they were very or extremely proud. Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) and Generation X (born 1965-1979) reported being 75% and 71% very or extremely proud, respectively.
“With the younger generation, all you have is what’s recent, whereas the older generation remember the good times as well as the bad times,” Fiorina said.
While Weglein and Mylin may not agree on certain political issues, they both had similar thoughts on why America’s youth feel the way they do.
“The younger generation, the people that are coming out of college, they don’t have any hope,” Weglein said. “The cost of living is crazy, how tough it is to buy a home, to really get ahead.”
“I can’t speak for everybody, but for the vast majority of Americans right now, we’re struggling financially,” Mylin said. “The economy is struggling. The housing market is struggling, education is struggling. Constitutional rights are in the crosshairs for a lot of people.”
President Trump and his administration will push patriotism for the next year with year-long celebrations leading up to America’s 250th birthday.
