American pride has fallen off a cliff

Data: PRRI American Identity Survey, May 1-18, 2026, PRRI American Identity Report; Chart: Russell Contreras/AxiosA profound identity crisis has gripped America ahead of its 250th birthday: Citizens are less proud, less religiously unified and losing faith that the American Dream still works.Why it matters: Democracies can survive policy brawls. They struggle to function when citizens lose faith in shared institutions, abandon a common civic story and use politics to replace religion and community.A new survey from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) finds that Americans are retreating into ideological camps, viewing the opposing side not as a political rival, but as threats to democracy itself.The big picture: 51% of Americans say they are extremely or very proud of being American, down sharply from 82% in 2013.Less than half of Democrats believe that being born in America (42%), believing in God (41%), or being Christian (29%) are important to national identity.Majorities of Republicans say being born in America, believing in God and being Christian are important to being truly American.Americans are also split on the American Dream, with less than half believing that hard work gets you ahead. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, belief in the American Dream has fallen from 50% in 2024 to 36% today.Zoom in: "What you really see is one vision of the country, and one mood among Republicans, and a very, very different vision of the country and mood among both independents and Democrats," PRRI president and founder Robert P. Jones tells Axios.Jones said the survey shows a country that's increasingly divided between Republicans and everyone else on questions of faith, democracy and American identity."Yes, we're polarized," Jones said, "but increasingly what we're seeing is Republicans as outliers, and further and further from the middle."The bottom line: Only 18% of Americans are extremely or very proud of the way democracy is working in America today.Methodology: PRRI conducted the survey online between May 1-18, 2026. The poll is based on a representative sample of 5,469 adults living in all 50 states.The margin of error is ±1.53 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample.