July 6 (UPI) — After a significant decline in faith in societal institutions in the United States last year, Gallup said on Thursday those numbers have not changed very much.
In 2022, the national polling service recorded huge slumps in confidence in 11 of the 16 institutions ranked by Gallup annually, with the U.S. Supreme Court (25%) and the presidency (23%) taking the biggest hits.
In Thursday’s poll, 27% of respondents said they had a great deal of faith in the Supreme Court, while 26% said they had the same faith in the presidency.
“Neither score recovered appreciably in the latest poll,” Gallup said. “However, the survey was conducted June 1-22, before the Supreme Court issued decisions affecting affirmative action in education, college loan forgiveness, and LGBTQ+ Americans’ equal rights in society.
“Any or all of these decisions could have altered the court’s image, as well as that of President Joe Biden, who spoke out against the rulings,” Gallup said.
Respondents said they had the most faith in small businesses (65%), the military (60%) and the police (43%). Faith in the police, though, was at an all-time low, matching that of 2022.
The public said they had the least faith in Congress (8%), followed by a tie between big business and television news at 14% each. The criminal justice system followed at 17% and newspapers at 18%.
“Most of the institutions rated this year are within three points of their all-time-low confidence score, including four that are at tied with their record low,” Gallup said.
Rankings for all the categories include small business, 65%; military, 60%; police, 43%; medical system, 34%; church or organized religion, 32%; Supreme Court, 27%; banks, 26%; large technology companies, 26; the presidency, 26%; public schools, 26%; organized labor, 25%; newspapers, 18%; criminal justice system, 17%; big business, 14%; television news, 14%; and Congress, 8%.
Gallup said the average confidence in major U.S. institutions fell to an all-time low of 26%.
The poll’s results are based on telephone interviews conducted June 1-22, with a random sample of 1,013 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia ,with a margin of sampling error is 4% at the 95% confidence level.
