"Americans are proud of their country's science prowess: a majority believe it is important for the U.S. to be a world leader in science, according to the Pew Research Center's latest report on trust in science. The number of people who hold this view is five percentage points higher than it was in 2023, the last time Pew asked the same question, according to data from more than 5,000 people surveyed in October 2025."
"But people who voted Democratic in the 2024 presidential election tended to hold a very different view than Republican voters on whether the country is living up to its promise. Between 2023 and 2025, the proportion of Democrats who believe that the U.S. is losing ground in science compared with other countries jumped by 28 percentage points. About two thirds of Democrats now hold this view."
"And the split between both groups is far wider than it was at previous times when Pew asked the same question in the past five years, he says. In 2022 and 2023 the difference between Democratic and Republican opinion was far more modest, Kennedy says, with both groups responses' within 7 percentage points of each other. Now we see this much bigger difference between Republicans and Democrats in our relative standing in science compared to other countries."
A national survey of more than 5,000 people in October 2025 found a majority of Americans consider U.S. leadership in science important. Support for U.S. scientific leadership rose by five percentage points since 2023. Democratic and Republican voters diverged sharply on whether the country is losing scientific ground: between 2023 and 2025 the share of Democrats saying the U.S. is losing ground rose by 28 points, and about two-thirds of Democrats now hold that view. Republicans are more positive about national scientific standing, and the partisan gap is much wider than in 2022–2023. Federal science funding cuts occurred last year, with millions in grants reduced.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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