More Agree that the United States Is in Decline

From 2025 to 2026, there was a 15% overall increase in those who agreed with the statement: "The United States is in decline," according to the American Communities Project's annual surveys.

Chart: American Communities ProjectSource: The 2026 survey was conducted with SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus survey over two weeks, September 3–6, 2026, and September 17–21, 2026, with 2,155 respondents and a margin of error of +/- 2.4 points. The ACP county-type analysis was modeled by statistician G. Elliott Morris. He turned the data into county-level estimates using a multilevel regression and poststratification model and aggregated them into the ACP’s types. American Communities Project/Ipsos Fragmentation Study, using a sample of 5,489 American adults aged 18 or older, with 4,889 interviews taking place online, and 600 interviews via telephone. Survey fielded on the KnowledgePanel from August 18 – September 1, 2025. Survey fielded using RDD Telephone from August 18 – September 4, 2025.Get the data