Trust in Federal Information Falls on Nearly Every Issue Tracked Since 2024
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Photo Credit: Meg Kinnard. Copyright 2014. The Associated Press
October 2026
A new survey shows declining confidence in government sources, though data and transparency remain key to what Americans consider factual.
Trust in federal government information dropped on every issue tracked since 2024. That’s a key finding of the 2026 State of the Facts Survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research with funding from USAFacts.
Just 18 percent of U.S. adults trust federal information about inflation and the cost of living a great deal or quite a bit, down from 26 percent in 2024. Trust in information about health care fell from 26 percent to 16 percent. Trust declined on nearly every topic asked about in both years, including jobs, the environment, elections, and the federal budget.
Overall, 44 percent of adults trust information from federal agencies at least a moderate amount. Who trusts that information has shifted sharply along party lines since 2024.
Partisan trust in federal agencies has reversed since 2024.
In 2024, 72 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of Republicans trusted information from federal agencies at least a moderate amount. In 2026, those shares are 41 percent and 49 percent.
“Because we’ve asked these questions since 2019, we can see how sharply trust in federal information has moved in just two years,” said Dan Malato, senior research director at The AP-NORC Center.
“Because we’ve asked these questions since 2019, we can see how sharply trust in federal information has moved in just two years.”
Americans still look to data and transparency to judge what’s true.
Sixty percent say they are extremely or very likely to consider information factual if it’s based on data. Seventy-one percent say it’s important that information explains how it was gathered.
Yet knowing what’s true remains hard. Just 37 percent say it’s easy to know whether information is true, compared with 62 percent who say it’s easy to tell fact from opinion. That gap has persisted since 2020.
Few see facts driving political decisions.
Only 10 percent say policymakers’ decisions are always or often based on factual information. Ahead of the midterms, 63 percent say it’s easy to find information about how to register to vote, down from 71 percent in 2024.
AI use is growing, but skepticism persists.
Daily use of AI chatbots rose from 6 percent in 2024 to 11 percent in 2026. Still, 52 percent think AI will do more harm than good to society.
“Americans are increasingly using AI as part of their information diet, but widespread skepticism remains,” Malato said. “The public appears to recognize AI’s potential to help make complex information more accessible, but they continue to question its accuracy, trustworthiness, and broader impact on the information landscape.”
“The public appears to recognize AI’s potential to help make complex information more accessible, but they continue to question its accuracy, trustworthiness, and broader impact on the information landscape.”
The survey has tracked Americans’ relationship with facts since 2019.
The AP-NORC Center and USAFacts first fielded State of the Facts in 2019, with later rounds in 2020, 2024, and 2026.
This year, AP-NORC and USAFacts surveyed 1,036 adults from July 29 to August 10 via AmeriSpeak®, NORC’s probability-based panel. Repeating the same questions over time shows how U.S. adults’ views of facts, sources, and trust change across election cycles.
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