Americans’ trust in the church rebounding after seeing record lows: Poll

July 29, 2025

A new poll by Gallup shows that the American public’s trust in the church is on the rise again after 3 years of stagnation.

The Christian Post reports that 36% of Americans surveyed said that they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the church.

That’s a noticeable improvement from 2022 when public trust in the church was near its lowest recorded level at just 31%.

Gallup has followed this trend annually since 1973, when public trust in the church stood at 66%, with the all time high of 68% being reached in 1975.

The latest numbers appear to show the American church regaining trust, matching levels last seen in 2021 when 37% of respondents expressed institutional confidence.

According to Lifeway Research, the only other major rebound in recent decades was in 2001, following the 9/11 attacks, when public confidence briefly rose to 60%.

In terms of public trust, the church still ranks behind small businesses (70%), the military (62%), and science (61%) in terms of public trust.

According to the Christian Post, the church falls in the middle tier, alongside the police (45%), higher education (42%), and the medical system (32%).

Institutions with lower levels of confidence than the church include the presidency (30%), banks (30%), public schools (29%), the U.S. Supreme Court (27%), and large tech companies (24%). Newspapers (17%), the criminal justice system (17%), big business (15%), television news (11%), and Congress (10%) occupy the bottom of Gallup’s 2025 ranking.

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