Two-thirds of Americans have a lot of confidence in small business in the U.S. In second place, 61% of people in the U.S. have confidence in the military, followed by 51% with the police. The Gallup Poll on Americans’ confidence in 17 U.S. institutions is out today, reflecting a snapshot of U.S. adults’ views on the organizations that touch their daily lives. And health care doesn’t fare too well in this latest read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only 36% of Americans have confidence in the U.S. medical system, tied with peoples’ feelings of lack of confidence in higher education.

At the bottom of the confidence-roster in America are Congress garnering on 9% confidence (and 57% “very little”), TV news (11% confident, 51% very little), and the Presidency, with only 46% of Americans having very little confidence.

The Gallup Poll was fielded between June 3 and 23, 2024, among 1,005 U.S. adults conducted by telephone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across all institutions and industries, Americans’ average confidence has dropped to 28% of people who have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence — with labor unions, Big Tech, banks, the presidency, criminal justice, newspapers, big business, TV news, and Congress falling below that average. 

 

 

 

There are partisan differences for most of the institutions — with similar levels of confidence (whether positive or negative) for small business and the military (on the positive side of the confidence ledger) and negative concurrence for confidence for Big business and Congress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health Populi’s Hot Points:   Gallup does not examine the U.S. “medical system” more granularly than that broad ecosystem phrase. But we do have demographic data for this question based on confidence in the medical system by gender, race, age, educational attainment, party ID, and household income.

I pulled out gender and party ID here for your reading ease — calling out that fewer women in America confidence in U.S. health care than men, and that more adults identifying as Democrats and Independents have confidence in the medical system than Republicans — at rates of 41%, 37%, and 30% respectively.

Fewer people with only a high school diploma or less have confidence in the medical system, and fewer White Americans vs. non-White Americans have confidence in the medical system.