Gallup Poll: Small Business Only Institution Among 17 to Earn Majority Confidence

A Gallup poll conducted in 2026 found that small business was the only one of 17 institutions to receive 50 percent or higher total confidence from Americans. The institutions ranked in descending order of confidence were small business, the military, the police, higher education, organized religion, the medical system, banks, the presidency, the U.S. Supreme Court, public schools, organized labor, big tech companies, the criminal justice system, newspapers, big business, television news, and Congress.

Congress received high confidence from 9 percent of respondents. Twenty-six percent of Americans said they had high or a lot of confidence in the medical system. A separate Gallup poll conducted in December 2025 found that 75 percent of Americans rated nurses as having high or very high honesty and ethics.

Military veterans, medical doctors, and pharmacists were the only other categories to receive high or very high ratings from a majority of respondents.