According to a new poll, fewer than one in four Americans have a favorable opinion about the federal government.
The Pew Research Center released data from their American Trends Panel survey on Thursday, which found only 22 percent of adults have a positive opinion of the federal government.
Pew reports, “State governments get mixed ratings: 50% of adults have a favorable opinion and 49% have an unfavorable view. This reflects a 4-point decline in favorability since 2022 and a 9-point decline since 2019.”
Additionally, “61% of adults rate their local government positively. But this, too, is down from 66% in 2022 and 69% in 2019.”
Democrats are approximately three times as likely as Republicans to have a positive view of the federal government.
Only about 11 percent of Republicans or Republican-leaning Americans have a similarly favorable view.
Pew reports that views on state governments vary widely depending on whether the respondents’ political party is in power.
“For example, 70% of Republicans living in states with Republican leadership have a positive view of their state government. By comparison, just 43% of Republicans living in states with split control – and only 22% of Republicans living in states with Democratic leadership – have a positive view,” Pew found. “The pattern among Democrats is similar.”
Local governments, on the other hand, have a majority favorable view across party lines.
“Americans differ little by party in opinion of their local government, with similar shares of Republicans (63%) and Democrats (64%) holding favorable views,” the report states.