Patriotism and Public Opinion

AEI has Karlyn Bowman's new report on public opinion and patriotism:

How proud are Americans of their country? As Independence Day approaches, this AEI Public Opinion Study focuses on patriotism in the United States, examining Americans’ self-professed patriotism, how people describe others’ patriotism, and reasons people are proud of the US. This study also looks at how patriotism in the United States compares to patriotism in other countries.

• Most are patriotic: A majority of Americans consistently say they are patriotic. In a February 2014 Pew Research Center that asked people how well the term “a patriotic person” described them on a scale of 1 to 10—with 10 being absolutely perfect and 1 totally wrong—65 percent said 8 to 10. In National Opinion Research Center’s 2014 General Social Survey, 67 percent said they were very proud of being American.
• Points of pride: Sixty-six percent said they were very proud of America’s armed forces in the 2014 General Social Survey, the top response of the 10 categories included in the question. Fifty-three percent said they were very proud of America’s history, and 46 percent said they were very proud of its scientific and technological achievements.
• Love (and criticism) of country: In a May 2015 CBS News/New York Times survey, 63 percent said things in this country have pretty seriously gotten off track. Despite this criticism, 85 percent said they loved America in a February 2015 Economist/YouGov online survey, and, in a March 2015 Fox News survey, 83 percent said the United States is the best country in the world to live in.
• US patriotism in context: In the most recent multicountry World Values Survey, Qatar ranked highest in self-expressed patriotism, with 98 percent of its citizens saying they were “very” proud to be citizens of that country. In comparison, 56 percent of Americans said they were very proud to be American citizens, locating our country more than midway down in this category.