The average confidence among Americans in major U.S. institutions is at an all-time low, as just 27% have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the 14 different institutions, including banks, Congress, the military, the police, the presidency, the Supreme Court, and more, according to a Gallup poll published on Tuesday.
The overall confidence level dropped from 36% in 2020 to 32% in 2021 before falling more this past year. The previous record-low confidence level was in 2014, when just 30% of Americans had "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in U.S. institutions.
Gallup has measured Americans' average confidence in the major U.S. institutions, not including small business and Big Tech companies, since 1979.
"Average confidence was at least 40% from 1979 to 1990 and from 1998 to 2004," Gallup noted. "Those latter years spanned the dot-com economic boom and the rally in support of government leaders after the 9/11 terrorist attacks."
Confidence in the Supreme Court (25%), the presidency (23%), and Congress (7%) have hit record lows in 2022. Last year, the average confidence among Americans in the Supreme Court was at 36%, while the presidency was up at 38%, and Congress was at 12%.
Looking at the poll results based on political party alignment, Democrats' confidence in the Supreme Court dropped from 31% last year, all the way down to 13% now. Their confidence in President Joe Biden fell from 69% to 51%, while their confidence in Congress dropped from 17% to 10%.
As for Republicans, their confidence in the Supreme Court has gone up slightly by three percentage points to 39%, while their confidence in the presidency fell from 12% to just 2%. Republicans' confidence in Congress barely changed, dropping from 6% to 5%.
They aren't the only three institutions to have hit record lows in confidence, as the church or organized religion fell from 37% in 2021 to 31% this year, newspapers dropped from 21% to 16%, the criminal justice system went from 20% to 14%, and the police lowered from 51% to 45%.
"Confidence in the police, at 45%, has fallen below the majority level for only the second time, with the other instance occurring in 2020 in the weeks after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police," Gallup said.
"Confidence in large technology companies is also at a low point (26%) but has only been measured the past three years," Gallup added.
Republicans did lose some confidence in the military and the police this year, as they felt just 71% confident in the military (down 10% from 2021) and only 67% confidence in the police (down 11% from 2021). In comparison, Democrats had just 28% confidence in the police.
Besides the presidency and police, the biggest gaps in confidence levels between Republicans and Democrats were in newspapers and public schools. Republicans had just 5% confidence in newspapers, while Democrats had 35% confidence. Democrats also had 43% confidence in public schools, while Republicans had just 13% confidence.
The only two institutions that held a majority of Americans' confidence were small businesses at 68% (down 2% from 2021), and the U.S. military at 64% (down 5% from 2021).
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