Americans with extreme national pride hovers near record low, poll shows

July 5, 2024

The number of Americans who say they are extremely proud or very proud to be an American remains near its lowest levels since 2001.

Axios reports that a recent Gallup poll on national pride show just 41% of respondents say they’re “extremely proud” of their citizenship with another 26% saying they’re “very proud” to be an American. In 2022, the number of respondents who expressed extreme pride in their nationality dropped to a record low of 38%.

By contrast, the years following 9/11 saw a much larger share of Americans reporting extreme pride peaking at 70% in 2003.

Possible explanations for the stark decline in those who feel extreme pride in their nation include international conflict, legal battles at the highest levels of government and an increasingly dystopian presidential race.

According to Axios, patriotic fervor is also affected by partisan divides with the latest Gallup polling showing 59% of Republicans expressing extreme pride compared to 34% of Democrats and 36% of Independents.

Steven Smith, a professor of political science at Yale, distinguishes between patriotism that is characterized by blind loyalty and militant aggression versus introspective patriotism that includes the capacity for self-reflection.

Smith says that introspective patriotism is endangered and added, “Patriotism can and should be what I call lowercase virtue, that is, a part of everyday life. It doesn’t necessarily require big crisis moments to come to the fore.”

Polling experts recognize that there is more than a simple binary choice between national pride or shame in one’s citizenship.

Photo: top, Credit: Gallup