Poll: Americans’ Confidence in Most US Institutions Hits New Low

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Public confidence in the major US institutions has shown a significant decline in the past year with the exception of small business and the military, a new Gallup poll revealed on Monday.

“Americans are less confident in major US institutions than they were a year ago, with significant declines for 11 of the 16 institutions tested and no improvements for any,” a release on the poll said.

The largest declines of confidence are for the presidency as is headed by President Joe Biden, with a 15 percentage points decline since the poll conducted in June 2021, and the US Supreme Court, with 11 percentage points decline.

While Americans' confidence in major US institutions has decreasing for the past 15 years, their trust has reached a new low this year, the release said.

The average confidence across all US institutions stands at a new low of 27 percent with Americans expressing greatest confidence in small business and least confidence in Congress, the release said.

Most of the institutions Gallup tracks are at historic lows, and average confidence across all institutions is now four points lower than the prior low, the release said.

“Confidence currently ranges from a high of 68% for small business to a low of 7% for Congress. The military is the only institution besides small business for which a majority of Americans express confidence (64%),” the release said.

Public confidence in Congress, the presidency (23 percent) and the US Supreme Court (25 percent) are at all-time lows with five other institutions sitting at their lowest points in 30 years, including organized religion (31 percent), media (16 percent), the criminal justice system (14 percent) and big business (14 percent), the release added.

Public confidence in big technology companies is no better at 26%, according to the release.