Americans continue to have little faith in major institutions: Gallup

Americans continue to have little faith in major institutions, following a dip in numbers in the previous year, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.

The poll found declines in public confidence in seven of the 16 institutions the pollsters track annually, with the military and medical system suffering the most, each down by 4 percentage points.

Other institutions that saw a drop in faith include small businesses, police, banks, public schools and organized labor.

In a similar poll published last year, 11 out of 16 major institutions saw drops in confidence from Americans, with the presidency and the Supreme Court recording the biggest loss.

And all 16 institutions have lost ground since the 2021 poll.

At the top of the list, 65 percent of respondents have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in small business operations — though down 3 points from 2022 — followed by 60 percent for the U.S. military.

Forty-three percent of respondents said they have confidence with “the police,” dropping 2 percentage points from the previous year, according to the poll.

The medical system and the church or organized religion rounded out the top five of annually rated major institutions, with 34 percent and 32 percent of respondents saying they have great confidence in the institution.

Twenty-seven percent of respondents said they have confidence in the Supreme Court — up 2 points from last year — while 26 percent of those surveyed have confidence in the American presidency, an increase of 3 percentage points.

The poll, however, was conducted prior to last week’s Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action and student loans, which drew heavy backlash from the left.

Eighteen percent of those surveyed have a great deal of confidence in newspapers, while 14 percent of respondents said they have great confidence in television news.

Eight percent of respondents said they have great confidence in Congress, which received the lowest confidence rating out of all the major institutions listed.

The Gallup poll was conducted from June 1-22, with a total of 1,013 respondents participating in the survey. The poll’s margin of error was 4 percentage points.