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Less than 60 per cent of American adults say they have strong pride in their country, a record low driven in part by splits among party lines and across generations, new polling by Gallup suggests.
The poll, released Monday ahead of this weekend’s July Fourth celebrations, found the number of people saying they are “extremely” or “very” proud to be an American is down nine points since last year and five points below the previous record low recorded in 2020.
The number of people who said they are “very” proud fell to just 17 per cent from 26 per cent last year, while those who said they are “extremely” proud held steady at 41 per cent.
“At the beginning of the 21st century, U.S. adults were nearly unanimous in saying they were extremely or very proud to be Americans,” the Gallup report noted. “But that national unity has eroded over the past 25 years due to a combination of political and generational changes.”
Among the causes it cites are “greater pessimism about the economic prospects for young people, widespread dissatisfaction with the state of the nation, greater ideological divides between the parties, unfavorable images of both parties, and intense partisan rancor during the Trump and Biden administrations.”
Gallup found among the most significant drops were among Democrats, with the number saying they are extremely or very proud down from 62 per cent a year ago to just 36 per cent today.
The report notes the only other time Democrats’ national pride has fallen below 50 per cent was in 2020, the last year of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first administration, when the U.S. was still reeling from the murder of George Floyd and ensuing protests against police brutality.
Monday’s poll also found national pride among independent voters has reached a new low, with 53 per cent saying they were extremely or very proud of their country, down seven points from last year.
By contrast, 92 per cent of Republicans said they were proud to be an American. Gallup noted that in the past quarter-century, the only years it saw national pride among Republicans dip below 90 per cent was during the presidential election years of 2016 and 2020, as well as throughout former president Joe Biden’s administration.
The report also cited a generational split, with national pride rising along with age.
Over the past five years, an average of 41 per cent of Generation Z adults said they were extremely or very proud to be an American — down from 47 per cent in the previous five-year period — compared to 58 per cent of millennials, who fell from 60 per cent.
Generation X Americans, meanwhile, enjoyed 71 per cent support for being extremely or very proud, a number that shoots up to 75 per cent for baby boomers and 83 per cent among the oldest Americans born after 1946. Those numbers have also fallen over the past 10 years, though at a smaller rate.
The Gallup report notes its polling was conducted days before the U.S. military strikes on Iran on June 21.
“It is unknown whether Americans’ national pride has been affected by that action,” it says.
It further notes that, while Americans’ national pride held relatively steady above 80 per cent since the highs recorded in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, “a new low of 75 per cent” was reported in 2017, “and national pride has deteriorated further since then.”
An Ipsos poll in April that surveyed 29 countries, including the U.S., found less than half of all people surveyed believed in America’s positive influence in the world.
Notably, just 63 per cent of Americans said so, putting the country behind nations like Peru, Thailand and India. As with the Gallup poll, belief in America’s place in the world saw far more support among Republicans (85 per cent) than Democrats (45 per cent).
In the Ipsos poll, just 19 per cent of Canadians said the U.S. represented a force for good — the lowest number for any country surveyed, and down from 52 per cent from six months prior, before the 2024 U.S. election.
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American pride has fallen to new low, driven by splits on party, age: poll – Global News
