America’s perception of greatness is on the rebound

The Ipsos Consumer Tracker, fielded on Ipsos' Omnibus platform, asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.

Why we asked: Since making America great again became a thing, we’ve been charting its progress. 

What we found: For the first time since we started tracking America’s greatness, the numbers have gone up. For Republicans, there was a 10-point jump in greatness since we asked last year: Now 64% of Republicans believe America is great, though it’s still below the 69% in 2017 when we first asked. Even Democrats ticked up a couple of points to 20% thinking American is great. But on balance, as a nation, we’re still 10 points shy of our 2017 benchmark, the only time since we began asking this question that a majority of Americans felt America was great. 

When was it greatest? A plurality of Republicans (25%) think it was greatest in the 1980s, when Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush were in charge. Notably, 17% of Republicans also think America is at peak greatness today, compared to just 3% of Democrats. About half of Democrats think the U.S. was greatest in the 1990s or later. We’re most in agreement about the 1990s, which 19% of Republicans and 18% of Democrats think was peak greatness. And we really disagree on the 2010s, which 15% of Democrats think was peak versus just 1% of Republicans. 

As America celebrates its 250th birthday, the fact that a consistent one in ten or so say it was never great is telling. Older Americans (Gen X, Boomers and the Silent Generation) are much more likely to say that being an American is an important part of how they think about themselves than Millennials and Gen Z.

All of this is good context for brands to keep in mind, since “buy American” is still such a strong values-driven purchase consideration for many here, while also taking a hit elsewhere. 

More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:

Younger Americans are visiting malls more frequently

Another positive signal in the consumer economy

In America, most still call it soccer

Republicans and Democrats agree: They want to better understand each other

The Ipsos Care-o-Meter: What does America know about vs. what does America care about?