Democrats are far more likely to say they’re “ashamed” to be Americans than are other U.S. adult citizens, results of a new national survey by The Economist/YouGov reveal.
With the nation’s 250th anniversary less than a month away, the survey conducted June 13-15 polled Americans’ views on their country.
When asked to rate how “proud” they were to be an American, 60% of U.S. adult citizens said they were either “very proud” (42%) or “somewhat proud” (18%).
While 20% of all adults said they were either somewhat (12%) or very (8%) “ashamed,” nearly twice as many Democrat citizens (38%) said they were ashamed, including 12% who reported that they were “very ashamed.” Only 40% of Democrats said they were at least somewhat proud to be Americans.
Another 22% of Democrats said they were “neither” proud nor ashamed to be Americans, on par with the 20% of all U.S. adults who voiced no opinion, one way or the other.
Democrats were also much less likely to think that America has been “a force for good in the world.”
Fully 61% of all U.S. adults answered either “yes” (25%) or “mostly yes” (36%) when asked if America has been a force for good, but only 10% of Democrats fully agreed, while 35% said they mostly agreed.
In a separate question, nearly half (45%) of Democrats said American compared poorly to the world’s other countries, including 25% who called it “worse than average,” 14% who labeled it “among the worst” and 6% who declared their home country “the worst” in the world.
In all, 54% of U.S. citizens said America was either the greatest country in the world (21%), among the greatest (20%), or better than the average country (13%).
Democrats were also found to be more critical of their country in an America 250 national survey of U.S. adults conducted between April 30 and May 3, 2026 by Elon University/YouGov.
Fully 68% of U.S. adults agreed that “I am proud to be an American,” including half (48%) who said it’s “very true” that they were a proud American. Slightly less than half (48%) of Democrats agreed.
And, when asked if there was “any other country on Earth you would rather live in than the United States today,” 55% of Democrat adults said “Yes.” Among all U.S. adults, about two-thirds (65%) said there’s no place else they’d rather be.
