Patriotism in free-fall: Just 39% of US adults and 18% of young people are ‘extremely proud’ to be American
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- Among younger adults, less than a fifth are highly patriotic
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Americans are growing ever-less keen on being American, a new poll shows.
Gallup researchers found that the share of US adults expressing pride in their nation has declined steadily for two decades.
Currently, just 39 percent say they’re ‘extremely proud’ to be American.
For young adults aged between 18 and 34, only 18 percent say they’re extremely proud of their nationality.
Gallup said that patriotism had reached a record low point, suggesting it was linked to the nation’s increasingly partisan politics.
Party affiliation doubtless plays a role too, researchers said.
Protesters against anti-LGBTQ laws in Los Angeles this month borrowed a line from the US Constitution
The share of US adults expressing pride in their nation has declined steadily for two decades
Fully 60 percent of Republicans say they’re extremely proud to be American, compared to just 29 percent of Democrats.
‘Pride in one’s national identity continues to differ most sharply among partisans, with more Republicans than Democrats saying they are proud,’ Gallup said in a statement.
‘However, age is nearly as important a factor, with younger adults in all party groups significantly less proud than older adults in each party.’
They noted that Republicans tend to be older than Democrats, which in part explains these findings.
Attitudes have shifted markedly this century, which has seen the US roiled by the 9/11 attacks, the War on Terror, its first black president, and the rise of populist and anti-immigrant sentiments.
When pollsters first asked the question in January 2021, fully 55 percent of US adults rated themselves as extremely proud to be American.
That jumped to nearly 70 percent between 2002 and 2004, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, but started falling from 2005 onwards.
Since 2018, less than half the US population has been extremely proud to call themselves an American.
Gallup’s latest results were based on phone interviews conducted in June with more than 1,000 adults across the US.
