Unwell: National Survey Finds Americans Are Polarized and Distrustful

Just how are Americans doing? Not well, according to recent analysis that evaluates public trust, national security, the economy, and daily life in America. This could have serious ramifications for security and emergency preparedness.

The State of the Nation Project—made up of leaders from seven U.S. leading think tanks and senior officials and advisors to the past five U.S. presidents—released its annual report, State of the Nation, in February 2025.

“A gnawing sense of angst seems to have descended upon us,” the authors wrote in the report’s executive summary. “We seem polarized and distrustful, worried and pessimistic.”

Of the nearly 1,000 U.S. adults surveyed on 37 topics for the report, most said that their life satisfaction is in decline and that people trust both each other and key institutions less.

“Three of the six trust measures we included are on the decline,” the authors explained. “While trust in local government, the criminal justice system, and science has been stable, trust in the federal government, police, and colleges/universities is on the decline. In fact, trust in colleges/universities and the federal government arguably saw the largest drops of any of the 37 measures across all of the topics. If we do not trust our key institutions, then it will be difficult to make improvements in the many critical areas of American life that these institutions are responsible for.”

Americans are extremely polarized today. The United States is currently tied with 18 other nations—including India, Mexico, and Pakistan—that had the highest rates of polarization nationally. When asked about their views of an opposing political party, for instance, U.S. adults said they were very low and continue to decline.

“This polarization partially reflects political realignment that accelerated in the early 1990s,” the authors wrote. “It used to be, for example, that members and officials of the two parties did not differ markedly on their views on policy issues. This is no longer true. Polarization in social media and mass media also seems to be feeding this trend.”

One in 10 U.S. adults now feel that they do not have friends or relatives they can count on to help them when they need it. The report found that the United States outperforms 66 percent of other countries on social isolation—which ramped up after 2007 and the Great Recession.

Smartphones may also be playing a role in increasing feelings of social isolation, since they detract from in-person interaction.

“Perhaps surprisingly, COVID did not immediately produce negative effects on social isolation,” the authors noted. “In fact, social isolation actually diminished in the early months of the pandemic, perhaps because many Americans spent more time at home with family members and roommates, or because people banded together to help each other get through the crisis. Social isolation spiked back up in later years to an all-time high.”

The U.S. public’s trust in science is considered stable, with the United States outperforming 32 percent of the world in this measure of trust—ranking just behind Germany, Mexico, and Turkey but far below China and Russia.

Public trust in science was on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic but declined slightly after the beginning of that era. Researchers credit this dip to the contention around the pandemic and the role that scientists played in making decisions that affected the general public—including social distancing.

“Specific concerns emerged about whether COVID originated from a lab leak (in China), poor and overconfident communication about COVID-related evidence, conflicting and shifting advice from the scientific community about how to respond to the pandemic, and political conflict over appropriate public health and social distancing measures being recommended by the public health community,” the authors wrote.

Public trust in the U.S. federal government declined in both perceptions of the ability to handle international problems and domestic ones. The project also assessed that the United States only outperforms 6 percent of other countries in this field.

“Trust in the federal government has declined from a peak of 60-70 percent in the year 2000 to less than 50 percent in a fairly short period of time—one of the sharpest drops of any measure of this report,” the authors explained. “We are ranked just below Latvia, South Korea, and Greece. Trust is somewhat higher in international affairs.”

Public trust in the federal government is also worsening, likely to decline even further in 2025, and is part of a trend that began in the 1960s.

“When people perceive that things are not going well in the country, as many of the measures in this report suggest, the federal government, and especially the president are often held responsible,” the authors explained.

Public trust in local governments was considered stable with 68 to 70 percent of the public expressing a “great deal or fair amount of trust,” and had the highest marks of trust in institutions that the authors evaluated.

People tend to trust those who are closest to them and people they know,” the authors explained. “Many citizens see their locally elected leaders face-to-face. When possible, people also tend to move to local communities that they have positive views about and that provide the services that are important to them.”

Megan Gates is senior editor with Security Management. Connect with her at [email protected] or on LinkedIn.