In this 2018 survey, eight percent of respondents stated they think the biggest problem for the United States today is Donald Trump. In fact, most of the important problems mentioned are somehow related to the current POTUS – the most mentioned one being immigration and racism.

A country divided

Since Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, political camps in the United States are deeply divided and global politics is in turmoil; Trump’s job approval ratings are notoriously low, and in fact, they are lower than Reagan’s or Nixon’s averages ever were. Trump’s leadership is controversial at best and his executive orders often cause protests, especially among Democrats and liberals – like the travel ban for Muslims.

On the other side

One of Trump’s main campaign promises was a wall on the border with Mexico in order to keep potential illegal immigrants out and enhance security for American citizens. When he did not get the majority for this plan, he declared a national emergency to force the budget to be allocated, even though the majority of Americans did not support this idea, and it is unclear if the situation at the Mexican border actually warrants it. In fact, the total number of unauthorized immigrants has decreased over the last few years and today, many Americans believe that their country benefits from immigrants and their work .

A survey conducted in July 2025 found that the most important issue for ***percent of Americans was inflation and prices. A further ***percent of respondents were most concerned about jobs and the economy.

This survey focused on issues facing the nation, Congress and the President. Additional questions were asked about the overall performance of President Reagan

This survey covers the following issues and topics: George W. Bush job performance (1); George W. Bush handling of issues (4); Opinions of people in the news (6); Government dealing with issues (14); Republicans or Democrats do a better job (14); Congress accomplish more or less (1); Goals for U.S. military (4); Follow news about Iraq (1); Favor or oppose removing Saddam Hussein (1); Iraq worth going to war (1); Best describes Iraq's weapon capability (1); How long would a war with Iraq last (1); How likely is it that the United States would win in Iraq (1); American's killed in war with Iraq (1); Worried about situation in the Persian Gulf (3); News about North Korea (1); North Korea resolved (1); Military action in North Korea (1); North Korea's military and weapons capabilities (1); Can U.S. fight two wars at once (1); Bigger threat to the U.S. (1); U.S. reinstate the draft (2); Democratic nomination for president in 2004 (1); Cloning illegal (1); George W. Bush policies (1); Economic proposals (6); Help economy (6); Help your family (6); Title IX (4); Sports fan (1); Job in construction (1).

This telephone survey focuses on the job President Reagan has done, how respondent thinks George Bush and his cabinet will do, perceived changes in George Bush, rating of Dan Quayle, salary raises for federal judges, who will set direction Bush or Congress, comparison of job in congress with other jobs, and problems facing Federal Savings & Loans.

This survey focuses on President Clinton and the November Congressional Election. Issues addressed include approval of President Clinton, allegations against him, impeachment vote, Congressional elections, ethical standards of professionals, federal budget, and crime. Demographic data include marital status, religion, employment status, age, sex, education, race, party affiliation, political ideology, and income.

• Attention and interest on international issues related to different countries.
• Most important objectives for Spain in international politics.
• Image of the Ibero-American countries in Spain and for the interviewee.
• Spain's relations with Latin America in economic, political, cultural, scientific/technical and sporting aspects.
• Most important objectives for Spain in international policy with Latin America.
• Similarities, common interests and union in the future between Spain and Latin American or European countries.
• Knowledge of the annual celebration of the Ibero-American Summit.
• Importance of the Ibero-American Summit for the countries of Latin America and for Spain.
• Agreement with various statements on the Ibero-American Summits: They strengthen political and economic ties, poor practical results, boost cooperation, and recent summits have lost relevance.
• Main problems that currently exist in the world. Opinion on the cooperation of Spain to the development of other peoples and the role of the State in international aid and cooperation.
• Countries to which Spanish development cooperation is directed and to which it should be directed.
• Evaluation of the resources that Spain dedicates to international cooperation for development and knowledge of the reduction of funds in recent years due to the crisis. Knowledge of the objective of industrialized countries to devote 0.7% of their GDP to help less developed countries. Opinion on whether Spain should dedicate 0.7% of its GDP. Knowledge of the percentage of Spanish GDP that is dedicated to helping less developed countries.
• Important aspects in development cooperation: human rights, health, indigenous peoples, poverty,... Knowledge of the United Nations Millennium Goals. Likelihood of achieving the various Goals. Knowledge of the resources that your Autonomous Community or City Council dedicates to cooperation with developing countries. Opinion on whether they should devote part of their resources.
• Agreement on the form of financing of NGOs.
• Most important task to be performed by NGDOs. Composition of NGOs to make their work effective.
• Participation in the interviewee's development cooperation.
• Box marked for allocation in the Income Statement.
• Influence on relations between Spain and Latin America of Latin American immigrants.
• Main cause of the immigration that Spain receives. Changes in the image of Latin America due to the presence of Latin American immigrants and the degree of agreement with a series of opinions about them.
• Beneficiary of the work done by immigrants from less developed countries.
• Agreement that there would be fewer immigrants if cooperation between countries were greater.
• Effect of the economic situation on immigrant and Spanish workers.
• Opinions on Spanish immigration policy and changes that should be introduced.
• Knowledge of Spanish companies with interests in Latin America. Investment.
• Effect of the performance of Spanish companies investing in Latin America has on the image of Spain.
• Equal performance of Spanish companies in Spain and Latin America.
• The Spanish Government should encourage greater involvement of Spanish companies abroad.
• Opinion on the action of Spanish companies in Latin America Larina in environmental and social matters
• Effect of the performance of Spanish companies investing in Latin America has on relations between Spain and these countries.
• Opinion on who benefits from the presence of Spanish companies in Latin America.
• Ideological self-location scale (1-10).
• Electoral participation in the 2008 general elections.
• Religious practice.

This survey covers the following issues and topics: How much thought given to upcoming election for president (1); do/do not know where people in neighborhood go to vote (1); ever voted in precinct/election district (1); how often vote (1); plans to vote in presidential election this November (2); John Kerry and John Edwards vs. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney vs. Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo (2); John Kerry and John Edwards vs. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney (2); 2000 presidential election (1).

United States SBOI: sa: Most Pressing Problem: A Year Ago: Others data was reported at 5.000 % in Mar 2025. This records a decrease from the previous number of 6.000 % for Feb 2025. United States SBOI: sa: Most Pressing Problem: A Year Ago: Others data is updated monthly, averaging 7.000 % from Jan 2014 (Median) to Mar 2025, with 131 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11.000 % in May 2023 and a record low of 3.000 % in Jul 2024. United States SBOI: sa: Most Pressing Problem: A Year Ago: Others data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Federation of Independent Business. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.S042: NFIB Index of Small Business Optimism. [COVID-19-IMPACT]

While much of the United States undoubtedly was aware of the impeachment hearings and trial for President Donald Trump in early 2020, the extent to which information about those events influenced the public remains unknown. Building upon scholarship on public opinion and democratic governance, we attempt to fill this knowledge gap through a unique survey. We asked half of our sample to answer three factual questions pertaining to Trump’s impeachment trial. We ran a quasi-experiment on the other half, trying to influence their view of the trial by informing them of the same three facts that we asked the first group. The quasi-experiment demonstrates that support for acquittal was largely static, and that partisanship strongly influences whether the public accepts the veracity and importance of political information. Consequently, civic knowledge today appears to have a limited — perhaps even nonexistent — effect on public attitudes about American politics.

Graph and download economic data for Federal Debt: Total Public Debt (GFDEBTN) from Q1 1966 to Q2 2025 about public, debt, federal, government, and USA.

The current political discourse in the United States focuses on extreme political polarization as a contributor to ills ranging from government shutdowns to awkward family holidays. And indeed, a large body of research has documented differences between liberals and conservatives–primarily focused on Republicans and Democrats in the United States. We combine large international surveys and more fine-grained surveys of United States citizens to compare differences in opinion between Republicans and Democrats to the full range of world opinion on moral issues (N = 37,653 in 39 countries) and issues of free speech (N = 40,786 in 38 countries). When viewed in the full distribution, polarization between Democrats and Republicans appears relatively small, even on divisive issues such as abortion, sexual preference, and freedom of religious speech. The average Democrat-Republic overlap is greater than 70% of the country pair overlaps across eight moral issues, meaning that 70% of the country pairs are more dissimilar from each other than Democrats and Republicans are dissimilar; similarly, the average Democrat-Republic overlap is greater than 79% of the country pair overlaps across five freedom of speech issues. These results suggest that cross-cultural comparisons are useful for putting differences between political partisans within the same country in context.

Unemployment Rate in the United States increased to 4.40 percent in September from 4.30 percent in August of 2025. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Unemployment Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

The Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) is an academic institution hosted by Vanderbilt University that began with the study of democratic values in Costa Rica, but today carries out surveys in much of Latin America, Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean. In 2004, LAPOP established the AmericasBarometer as multi-country, regularly conducted survey of democratic values and behaviors in the Americas, and the first round included voting-age respondents from 11 countries. LAPOP collected opinions on major problems facing the country and community, threats to security, attitudes towards the country's political system, and trust in government institutions. Also measured were respondents' participation in community organizations, attitudes towards government critics, voting behavior, confidence in local government, and the prevalence of crime. Demographic information collected includes nationality, ethnicity, native language, age, gender, education level, occupation, religion, and whether the respondent lives in an urban or rural area.

A 2024 survey found that over half of U.S. individuals indicated the cost of accessing treatment was the biggest problem facing the national healthcare system. This is much higher than the global average of 32 percent and is in line with the high cost of health care in the U.S. compared to other high-income countries. Bureaucracy along with a lack of staff were also considered to be pressing issues. This statistic reveals the share of individuals who said select problems were the biggest facing the health care system in the United States in 2024.

The United States has had 46 presidents since George Washington's election in 1789. While Washington himself was not affiliated with any political party, and even argued against partisanship (something that the other Founding Fathers agreed with), political differences and personal rivalries between the Founding Fathers eventually led to the founding of the Federalist Party, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson. Washington's successor, John Adams, was the only Federalist president, before the Democratic-Republicans occupied the White House from 1801 until 1829.

Formation of the Democratic and Republican parties

The 1820s again saw political and personal rivalries lead to a split among the country's leadership, and the Democratic-Republican Party made way for the formation of the Democratic Party and the National Republican Party. The Democratic Party was formed by Andrew Jackson and his supporters, and was traditionally the more conservative of the major political parties in the U.S. until the mid-twentieth century. The National Republican Party was short lived, and eventually amalgamated with the Whig Party in the 1830s, who would go on to be the main opposition to the Democratic Party for the subsequent two decades. Four U.S. presidents belonged to the Whig Party, although it may be important to note that these four men only served a combined eight years in office, as two of them died a short while into their tenure. The issue of slavery was the most dominant and divisive issue in U.S. politics in the mid-nineteenth century, and regional splits emerged in both parties; the rifts did not break apart the Democratic Party, who favored state sovereignty on the issue, whereas the divide in the Whig Party saw it splinter into the right-wing Know Nothing Party in the south, and anti-slavery Republican Party in the north. The 1856 election was the first to feature candidates of both the Democratic and Republican Parties, marking the beginning of the major political rivalry that has dominated U.S. politics for the past 160 years.

Realignment

Abraham Lincoln became the U.S.' first Republican president with his victory in the 1860 election. From then until 1933, twelve of the U.S.' 16 presidents belonged to the Republican Party, while just four* were from the Democratic Party. Due to the legacy left by the American Civil War, the southern, former-Confederate states were a political stronghold for the Democratic Party, and rarely voted for Republican candidates in presidential elections; in contrast to this, the north, west and newly-admitted states tended to vote Republican. In the 1910s, the Republican Party transitioned into the more ideologically conservative option of the two major parties, and more fiscally conservative following the Great Depression; however, it was not until the Johnson administration in the 1960s, particularly due to matters regarding African-American civil rights, where the core voter bases switched into what is typically expected today. In the past century, there have been ten Republican and nine Democratic presidents (including Joe Biden), with Democrats occupying the White House for roughly 52 of these years. Republican voters in the twenty-first century are generally more conservative and right-leaning in regards to both economic and social issues, whereas Democratic voters tend to be the opposite. There are also strong correlations between political parties and their voters, based on issues such as location, ethnicity, wealth, education and age.

In May 2025, a survey asked U.S. adults how they feel while consuming news. The results indicate that a majority feel informed, with 53 percent saying that news generally makes them feel this way. At the same time, 43 percent reported feeling angry, and 32 percent said they feel depressed when consuming news. In contrast, only 16 percent described feeling hopeful. These findings highlight that while staying informed is a major benefit of news consumption, negative emotional reactions—such as anger and depression—are also very common among Americans.

A 2025 survey found that around one in four adults in the United States actively avoided news related to sports, followed by entertainment (18 percent) and lifestyle (17 percent). In contrast, health was the least avoided news topic, with just four percent of respondents saying they ignored it.