America’s moral values tumbling, say soaring number of adults

Record shares of adults say moral values in the country are tanking, according to annual Gallup polling released Friday.

Among those responding to the polling company’s latest survey, 54% described the nation’s moral values as “poor,” up four percentage points from last year. The previous high in the annual survey, which goes back to 2002, was 49% in 2018.

An additional 33% of respondents described U.S. moral values as “only fair,” 10% called them “good” and just 1% used the word “excellent.”

---

---

“These ratings come at a time of increased gun violence in the U.S., rising reports of disturbances on air flights, altercations between attendees at public meetings, a continued decline in religiosity, and an increasing willingness among elected officials to enact laws to regulate abortion, transgender health care and sports participation, and gun ownership,” Gallup said.

The pollster noted that the percentage of Republicans and Democrats calling the nation’s moral values “poor” this year inched up by two points, to 74% and 38% of respondents, respectively. The share of independents saying the same surged by seven points from last year to a new high of 51%.

“The increased negative rating of moral values is mostly owed to worsening views among independents,” Gallup said.

The poll also found that 83% of those surveyed said moral values in the U.S. are “getting worse,” up five points from last year and 16 points from 2021. The previous high was 82% in 2007. Only 12% said moral values are improving.

Gallup noted that an occasional survey last year found most respondents citing a lack of consideration in how people treat each other as the nation’s top moral problem. But Republicans were equally likely to name a loss of religious faith as their top moral concern.

Gallup conducted a randomized national telephone survey of 1,011 adults from May 1-24. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.