Gen Z Drives Sharp Decline in American Pride: Poll
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
While millions of Americans will celebrate the founding of the United States this week with fireworks or cookouts, those July 4 festivities will be set to a backdrop of declining national pride driven by Gen Z, according to a new poll.
Why It Matters
American national pride reached a record low in a new Gallup poll released on Monday. The survey found wide generational and partisan differences in American patriotism, which has declined across the board over the past few decades.
It found particularly low levels of national pride among Gen Z, an increasingly important age group in elections. The youth vote shifted rightward in the 2024 race, with President Donald Trump gaining new ground among voters between the ages of 18 and 29, according to election data.
What To Know
Only 58 percent of Americans reported feeling very or extremely proud of their country, according to a Gallup poll conducted from June 2 to June 19. That's the lowest point since 2001, when the pollster began asking the question in its surveys.
That drop is largely fueled by Gen Z voters, only 41 percent of whom said they are proud to be an American in an average of polls from 2021 to 2025. This compares to 58 percent of millennials, 71 percent of Gen X, 75 percent of baby boomers and 83 percent of the Silent Generation.
American flags decorate the National Mall in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 2025.
American flags decorate the National Mall in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 2025.Democratic voters have also seen their sense of national pride plummet after Trump's reelection last year; only 36 percent of Democrats said they are proud to be an American, down from 60 percent in 2024. Among Republicans, 92 percent said they are proud to be an American, compared to 85 percent in 2024, the poll found.
Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, told Newsweek it's unsurprising that national pride has dropped among young voters.
"Young voters tend to be idealistic in their outlook, and when they look at American politics these days, there's much to be frustrated with and to be disillusioned by," Panagopoulos said. "For young voters, that is especially acute because it's their foray into political life in America."
Across the board, American pride has dropped in part because Americans are increasingly believing that politicians are unable to come together to solve people's everyday problems, Panagopoulos said.
What People Are Saying
Jeffrey M. Jones of Gallup wrote in the survey's report: "At the beginning of the 21st century, U.S. adults were nearly unanimous in saying they were extremely or very proud to be Americans. But that national unity has eroded over the past 25 years due to a combination of political and generational changes. Democrats today are much less likely than in the past to express pride in their country; in fact, their national pride has hit a new low. Additionally, Generation Z and millennials are much less proud of their country than their elders are."
Northeastern University Professor Costas Panagopoulos told Newsweek: "It's quite worrying in part because America is what it is because of our ability historically to come together as a nation to solve national and even global problems. And if we cannot unite as a country to do that around our identity as Americans, it is problematic.
What's happening right now in America is that Americans across the board appear to be replacing their sense of national identity with their allegiance to partisan identity, or what appears to be happening is that our partisan identities are surmounting our national identity as Americans."
What Happens Next
July 4 will likely see celebrations across the country, despite a decline in patriotism. Future political developments could determine whether patriotism makes a comeback.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
3 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
National pride is declining in America. And it's splitting by party lines, new Gallup polling shows
WASHINGTON — Only 36% of Democrats say they're 'extremely' or 'very' proud to be American, according to a new Gallup poll, reflecting a dramatic decline in national pride that's also clear among young people. The findings are a stark illustration of how many — but not all — Americans have felt less of a sense of pride in their country over the past decade. The split between Democrats and Republicans, at 56 percentage points, is at its widest since 2001. That includes all four years of Republican President Trump's first term. Only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults who are part of Generation Z, which is defined as those born from 1997 to 2012, expressed a high level of pride in being American in Gallup surveys conducted in the past five years, on average. That's compared with about 6 in 10 millennials — those born between 1980 and 1996 — and at least 7 in 10 U.S. adults in older generations. 'Each generation is less patriotic than the prior generation, and Gen Z is definitely much lower than anybody else,' said Jeffrey Jones, a senior editor at Gallup. 'But even among the older generations, we see that they're less patriotic than the ones before them, and they've become less patriotic over time. That's primarily driven by Democrats within those generations.' America's decline in national pride has been a slow erosion, with a steady downtick in Gallup's data since January 2001, when the question was first asked. Even during the tumultuous early years of the Iraq War, the vast majority of U.S. adults, whether Republican or Democrat, said they were 'extremely' or 'very' proud to be American. At that point, about 9 in 10 were 'extremely' or 'very' proud to be American. That remained high in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but the consensus around American pride slipped in the years that followed, dropping to about 8 in 10 in 2006 and continuing a gradual decline. Now, 58% of U.S. adults say that, in a downward shift that's been driven almost entirely by Democrats and independents. The vast majority of Republicans continue to say they're proud to be American. Independents' pride in their national identity hit a new low in the most recent survey, at 53%, largely following that pattern of gradual decline. Democrats' diminished pride in being American is more clearly linked to Trump's time in office. When Trump first entered the White House, in 2017, about two-thirds of Democrats said they were proud to be American. That had fallen to 42% by 2020, just before Trump lost reelection to Democrat Joe Biden. But while Democrats' sense of national pride rebounded when Biden took office, it didn't go back to its pre-Trump levels. 'It's not just a Trump story,' Jones said. 'Something else is going on, and I think it's just younger generations coming in and not being as patriotic as older people.' Other recent polling shows that Democrats and independents are less likely than Republicans to say that expressing patriotism is important or to feel a sense of pride in their national leaders. Nearly 9 in 10 Republicans in a 2024 SSRS poll said they believed patriotism has a positive impact on the United States, with Democrats more divided: 45% said patriotism had a positive impact on the country, while 37% said it was negative. But a more general sense of discontent was clear on both sides of the aisle earlier this year, when a CNN/SSRS poll found that fewer than 1 in 10 Democrats and Republicans said 'proud' described the way they felt about politics in America today. In that survey, most Americans across the political spectrum said they were 'disappointed' or 'frustrated' with the country's politics. Sanders and Thomson-Deveaux write for the Associated Press.
Politico
11 minutes ago
- Politico
As US weapons for Ukraine dry up, Kyiv changes tactics
A second person briefed on the exchange between the two leaders said it was 'productive' and went 'very, very well.' Zelenskyy gave Trump an update on the state of the war, the second person said, and outlined what kinds of support Kyiv would need from the United States in the future. Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said he'd heard that Zelenskyy had modified his aid request from military aid to weapons purchases. Wicker did not attend the NATO summit, though a bipartisan delegation met with European allies there. 'I'm told that President Zelenskyy's request now is less financial aid from the United States and more the ability to use European money to purchase guns and ammunition from us,' he said. Zelenskyy's office did not immediately respond to questions about the emerging Ukrainian plan or what was discussed during the meeting between the two heads of state. Trump, who has been repeatedly frustrated in recent weeks by Russian President Vladimir Putin's reticence to come to the bargaining table to end his war on Ukraine, emerged from the meeting more sympathetic to Kyiv's cause than before — and did not rule out sending more Patriot air defense systems. 'They do want to have the anti-missile missiles, as they call them, and we're going to see if we can make some available,' Trump said at a news conference at the end of the NATO summit. 'They're very hard to get.' But despite the positive interactions between Trump and Zelenskyy, there has been no recent movement to get more American weapons to Ukraine. The issue of weapons transfers gained new urgency this week, after the Pentagon's halt on munitions shipments became public. Defense Department officials had become concerned that U.S. weapons stockpiles were getting low and ordered the partial freeze. Meanwhile, attempts to clear a fresh round of funding to assist Ukraine have stalled on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers last approved an aid package for Ukraine more than a year ago, when Congress OK'd $61 billion in funding related to arming Kyiv and replenishing U.S. stocks of weapons, along with billions in aid for Israel and other Pacific partners.
San Francisco Chronicle
17 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Judge blocks order barring asylum access at border and gives administration two weeks to appeal
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge said Wednesday that an order by Donald Trump suspending asylum access at the southern border was unlawful, throwing into doubt one of the key pillars of the president's plan to crack down on migration at the southern border. But he put the ruling on hold for two weeks to give the government time to appeal. In an order Jan. 20, Trump declared that the situation at the southern border constitutes an invasion of America and that he was 'suspending the physical entry' of migrants and their ability to seek asylum until he decides it is over. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington said his order blocking Trump's policy will take effect July 16, giving the Trump administration time to appeal. Moss wrote that neither the Constitution nor immigration law gives the president 'an extra-statutory, extra-regulatory regime for repatriating or removing individuals from the United States, without an opportunity to apply for asylum' or other humanitarian protections. The Homeland Security Department did not immediately respond to a request but an appeal is likely. The president and his aides have repeatedly attacked court rulings that undermine his policies as judicial overreach. The ruling comes after illegal border crossings have plummeted. The White House said Wednesday that the Border Patrol made 6,070 arrests in June, down 30% from May to set a pace for the lowest annual clip since 1966. On June 28, the Border Patrol made only 137 arrests, a sharp contrast to late 2023, when arrests topped 10,000 on the busiest days. Arrests dropped sharply when Mexican officials increased enforcement within their own borders in December 2023 and again when then-President Joe Biden introduced severe asylum restrictions in June 2024. They plunged more after Trump became president in January, deploying thousands of troops to the border under declaration of a national emergency Trump and his allies say the asylum system has been abused. They argue that it draws people who know it will take years to adjudicate their claims in the country's backlogged immigration courts during which they can work and live in America. But supporters argue that the right to seek asylum is guaranteed in U.S. law and international commitments — even for those who cross the border illegally. They say that asylum is a vital protection for people fleeing persecution — a protection guaranteed by Congress that even the president doesn't have the authority to ignore. People seeking asylum must demonstrate a fear of persecution on a fairly narrow grounds of race, religion, nationality, or by belonging to a particular social or political group. In the executive order, Trump argued that the Immigration and Nationality Act gives presidents the authority to suspend entry of any group that they find 'detrimental to the interests of the United States.' Groups that work with immigrants — the Arizona-based Florence Project, the El Paso, Texas-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and the Texas-based RAICES — filed the lawsuit against the government, arguing that the president was wrong to equate migrants coming to the southern border with an invasion. And they argued that Trump's proclamation amounted to the president unilaterally overriding '... the immigration laws Congress enacted for the protection of people who face persecution or torture if removed from the United States.' But the government argued that because both foreign policy and immigration enforcement fall under the executive branch of government, it was entirely under the president's authority to declare an invasion. ___ Spagat reported from San Diego.
