Survey: Majority of Gen Z voters have little trust in Congress or the presidency
Aug 21, 2024, 11:42 AM
Brattleboro Union High School students register to vote during a voter drive at the school, Feb. 14, 2024, in Brattleboro, Vt. Sixteen and 17-year-olds in Brattleboro will get to vote in local elections and if they're 18 by the November general election they can cast ballots in the Super Tuesday presidential primary. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)
(AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)
(CNN) — Many young Americans are distrustful of a broad range of institutions, according to a Gallup-Walton Family Foundation survey released Wednesday, with roughly half saying they have very little trust in Congress or the presidency.
Fifty-three percent of voting-age members of Generation Z – which the survey defines as those younger than 28 – said they trusted Congress very little, with 51% saying the same about the presidency and 44% about the Supreme Court. Just 20% said they had “quite a lot” or “a great deal” of trust in the Supreme Court, with even fewer expressing high levels of trust in Congress or the presidency.
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More than a third of Gen Z adults also say they have very little trust in large technology companies (49%), the news (43%), the criminal justice system (41%) and the police (37%), with fewer saying the same of the military (30%) and the medical system (26%). Just 7% say they have very little trust in science as a whole.
The results echo the findings of a Harvard Institute of Politics survey released earlier this year, which found slumping trust among young adults in many institutions.
A lack of trust in the country’s political system isn’t unique to young Americans. Gallup polling from earlier this year asked a closely related question about confidence in institutions. And similar shares of adults of all ages expressed doubts about the three branches of government: 57% said that they had very little confidence in Congress, 46% that they had very little confidence in the presidency and 35% that they had very little confidence in the Supreme Court. By contrast, young adults were significantly likelier than the US public as a whole to say they have little confidence in the police, the military and large technology companies.
Young members of Gen Z largely have faith in their teachers, the Gallup-Walton Family Foundation survey finds. A 59% majority of current middle school, high school and college students say they have high levels of trust in their teachers and other adults at their school.
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The Gallup-Walton Family Foundation poll surveyed 4,157 12- to 27-year-olds in the US between April 26 and May 9, using a nationally representative online panel. Results for the full sample have a margin of error of +/- 2.1 percentage points.
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