New Gallup polling data demonstrates our two national political parties have extremely different takes on whether citizenship in the United States of America is worthy of their pride.
Gallup first started asking Americans how proud they were of their nation in January 2001 when 87% of Americans said they were “extremely” or “very proud” to be citizens of America. That number rose, hovering around 90 and 91% over 2002 to 2004, declining to 83% in 2005 and remaining roughly at that level until 2017 where it sank to 75%, and continued to decline to its present low of 58% in 2025.
Declining pride in one’s nation is never a good-news story. But the real punch of this finding is the group who national pride is declining among. Gallup tells us it is certainly not declining among everyone. Not even close. It divides starkly along politically partisan lines. Gallup presents the distinction this way.
As we can see, this was not always the case.
Democrats and Republicans were only 3 percentage points different, and both at very high levels, in 2001. For Democrats it started to dip to 81% in 2005 to a first low of 74% in 2007. It then started to climb to 85% in 2013 and then sink to a stark 42% in 2020. It then rose for Democrats to 62% in 2021, sank exactly ten points in 2022, then began to rise again to 62% in 2024. Then Democrat national pride sank by nearly half to 36% in 2025, an all-time low.
All the while, pride in being American remained relatively stable at a very high level for Republicans, never dipping more than six points.
Curiously, if you look at the more recent years of dramatic rise and fall in national pride among Democrats, these changes correspond closely with who is in the White House. That is clearly not the case with Republicans. Their national pride remained at a relatively high level regardless of who occupied the executive office of our country.
The same dramatic shifts are also shown by age cohort.
Younger Democrats show dramatic declines in being “extremely” or “very proud to be an American.” Republicans show declines as well, but these are far less dramatic for GOP-aligned young people, staying well above the majority. As Gallup reports, “Notably, more Gen Z Democrats say they have little or no pride in being an American (32%) than say they are extremely or very proud” (emphasis added).
Clearly, one of our nation’s two major political parties have stronger and more consistent pride in being American than the other. This also means one party is more aligned with the strong pro-American sentiments of immigrants legally assimilating to the U.S.A. than either Democrats or Independents.
Blind allegiance to a nation is not a virtue, but neither is blind disdain based on who is in the White House. But the flow of families from around the globe coming to American – legally and illegally – risking life and fortune, is a very strong indicator of just how great a nation America is. That is worth taking pride in.
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