U.S. military action in Iran remains unpopular as 53% expect negative personal financial impacts
Washington, D.C., March 16, 2026 – A new Ipsos poll conducted March 13–15 finds Americans continue to hold negative views of U.S. military strikes against Iran, with disapproval of the strikes significantly outweighing approval. Americans’ concerns about the U.S. military engagement range from risks to American service members’ lives to the conflict’s impact on Americans’ personal finances.
Overall, 58% say they disapprove of U.S. military strikes against Iran, compared with 38% who say they approve. This negative balance of opinion is broadly consistent with previous Ipsos and Reuters/Ipsos surveys. The new survey no longer includes an explicit “not sure” option, which had been offered during the conflict's first few weeks.
A large majority of Americans (85%) say they are very or somewhat concerned about the risks to the lives of American military personnel as part of U.S. actions in Iran. The idea of deploying U.S. ground troops to Iran is deeply unpopular: 78% say they would oppose this, compared with just 17% who would favor it.
With gas prices up sharply since the start of the conflict, 65% say they expect gas prices in the U.S. to be worse in a year because of the U.S. military action in Iran. Just over half (53%) now say they expect the conflict to negatively impact their personal financial situation – up four points from a week ago.
The poll also finds that Americans remain skeptical of the idea that military action in Iran will improve U.S. security in the long run.
About the Study
This Ipsos poll was conducted March 13-15, 2026, by Ipsos using the probability-based KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,025 general population adults aged 18 or older.
The study was conducted in English. The data were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race and ethnicity, census region, metropolitan status, education, household income, 2024 vote choice and political party identification. Political party identification benchmarks are from the 2025 NPORS annual survey, with a midyear adjustment estimated across aggregated KnowledgePanel surveys accounting for changes in panelists’ party identification over time. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2025 March supplement of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS).
- Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18–29, 30–44, 45-59 and 60+)
- Race/Hispanic Ethnicity (White Non-Hispanic, Black Non-Hispanic, Other, Non-Hispanic, Hispanic, 2+ Races, Non-Hispanic)
- Education (Less than High School, High School, Some College, Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree or higher)
- Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
- Metropolitan status (Metro, non-Metro)
- Household Income (Under $25,000, $25,000-$49,999, $50,000-$74,999, $75,000-$99,999, $100,000-$149,999, $150,000+)
- 2024 Vote Choice (Trump, Harris, Another candidate, Did not vote)
- Political Party ID (Democrat, Lean Democrat, Republican, Lean Republican, Independent/Something else)
The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.29. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on sub-samples. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.
For more information on this news release, please contact:
Alec Tyson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
[email protected]
About Ipsos
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