America used to be exceptionally patriotic. Now we're below average.

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Politics<br>America used to be exceptionally patriotic. Now we're below average.<br>Most Americans still love their country, but patriotism is in sharp decline.

Eli McKown-Dawson and Nate Silver<br>Jul 03, 2026

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American fans in an anxious moment during the match between the U.S and Bosnia-Herzegovina at the FIFA Fan Zone in Washington. Photo by Finn Gomez/Getty Images.<br>I’m going to admit to feeling a swell of patriotic pride after the U.S. beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 on Wednesday.1 Maybe it was a protective reaction after the bullshit red card the referee gave Folarin Balogun. Or maybe it was the juxtaposition of everyone singing along to “Country Roads”2 in the middle of Silicon Valley, not necessarily considered the most patriotic place in America.3<br>So congratulations to the United States on its 250th birthday, which the country will celebrate tomorrow. It’s really quite an accomplishment if you’ve spent any time studying the rise and decline of empires. And I hope you’ll have a fun and restful July 4 weekend, readers. I very much don’t want it to rain on the parade. I’m also relatively optimistic about the future of the country. I’m a big defender of the complicated national project we’ve undertaken over the past two-and-a-half centuries. I love the United States, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be here for the rest of my life.<br>However, an increasing number of Americans don’t agree with me, to a degree that I found frankly surprising. We assigned this story to Eli in our weekly planning meeting, and I expected the data to show that, while American patriotism had declined, it remained relatively high as compared to the rest of the world. Some informative content that was a little on the lighter side, if we’re being frank.<br>But that isn’t the case. Compared to most countries, we’re now a little below average in patriotism.<br>So I just wanted to let you know where we’re coming from. Our goal here at Silver Bulletin is to evaluate public opinion for what it is, not to reflect our personal views every time we analyze the polls. (And even if we don’t necessarily agree, we understand why an increasing number of Americans feel ambivalent about the United States.) I thought this was a better way to approach the occasion than a hot take from yours truly. –Nate Silver

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What the polls say about patriotism

By Eli McKown-Dawson<br>“It was a grand day for the Bicentennial parade in the nation’s capital today, and it was a grand parade celebrating the diversity that is America.” That’s how The New York Times described America’s bicentennial celebration in 1976. The parade drew 500,000 people and featured Johnny Cash as the Grand Marshal. Our 200th anniversary also included a Grand Parade of Sailing Ships in NYC and a tour of the country by Queen Elizabeth II. When Gallup asked Americans in June of that year how much we had “succeeded over these 200 years in achieving the ideals for which this country was founded,” 77 percent answered either a great deal or a fair amount.<br>The vibes aren’t anywhere near that good for our semiquincentennial. The Great American State Fair has had problems with power outages and crowd sizes — and the celebration in general has a decidedly partisan flavor. Many of this year’s events are being put on by Freedom 250, a Trump-backed public-private partnership.4 The president also promised to “make a really long speech” before the fireworks begin in DC.<br>Being mad about the Great American State Fair is something we’d be tempted to characterize as “very online” behavior. But increasing skepticism about the United States isn’t just an online sentiment. In 2004, Gallup found that 69 percent of U.S. adults were “extremely proud” to be an American. The fourth wave of the World Values Survey (WVS) also ended that year and showed that a similar 71 percent of Americans were “very proud” to be American. Fast forward to 2026, and just 33 percent of adults are extremely proud to be American, according to Gallup, while the latest WVS wave showed an only slightly higher 46 percent in 2022.

To be fair, as Natalie Jackson pointed out earlier this week, the Gallup write-up only focused on the “very” or “extremely” proud categories. Some 75 percent of U.S. adults are at least “moderately” proud to be American, according to its data, a figure in line with other polls from YouGov and Fox News. Anti-American sentiment isn’t likely to be a winning argument, even in Democratic primaries, let alone in general elections.<br>How American pride compares to the rest of the world

Still, there has been a real decline in patriotism that I don’t think we should discount. Historically, American pride was somewhat exceptional when compared to other countries, so much so that the American tourist who slaps an American flag on everything is a common trope. Have smaller countries — particularly those in Latin America, the Middle East, and...