Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
7 Figures: Millennials’ Views of American Institutions
7 Figures: Millennials’ Views of American Institutions
Feb 1, 2026 10:00 PM

A new Pew Research Center analysis of survey data shows that younger generations tend to have more-positive views than their elders on a number of institutions that play a significant role in American society.

Here are 7 figures you should know from the report:

1. Millennials’ rating of churches and other religious organizations dropped 18 percentage points from 2010 to 2015. In 2010, nearly three-quarters (73 percent) said churches have a positive impact on the country; today, only 55 percent make that same claim.

2. As of 2015, 86 percent of Millennials say small businesses have a positive effect, up 15 points since 2010.

3. Evaluations of large corporations have similarly improved among Millennials (an increase from 28 to 38 percent), though they also remain more negative than positive.

4. Five years ago, just 35 percent of Millennials said banks had a positive impact on the nation; today 45 percent say the impact of banks is positive.

5. Labor unions are also seen more positively today than they were five years ago (45 percent now say they have a positive impact on the country, up from 32 percent in 2010). And Millennials remain much more likely than their elders to view unions positively.

6. While about half of Americans (48 percent) view the energy industry as having a positive impact on the country, this view is somewhat mon among those in younger generations than older: 54 percent of Millennials and 52 percent of Xers say pared with just 42 percent of Boomers and 35 percent of Silents.

7. In 2010, four-in-ten Millennials said the national news media was having a positive impact on the way things were going in the country. Now, just 27 percent say it has a positive pared with 26 percent of Generation Xers and Silents and 23 percent of Boomers.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Kubrick, Clarke, and the Higher Power of 2001: A Space Odyssey
Much analogy is made between the artistic plishments of James Joyce and Stanley Kubrick in Michael Benson’s 50th anniversary examination of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1968 sci-fi classic film directed by Kubrick and co-written by Arthur C. Clarke. For one, both Joyce and Kubrick tip their respective hats to Homer’s Odyssey in both title and content. Joyce’s 1922 novel Ulysses requires no explanation as it updates the journeys of Odysseus and crew in a 20th century Dublin setting. Kubrick’s...
If Masterpiece Cakeshop has right to associate, so does the Red Hen
When the owners of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave because she works for President Trump, the mob of public opinion on both sides promptly took up their torches, pitchforks, and Twitter accounts. Charlie Kirk and others condemned the Red Hen as “backward thinking intolerant leftists.” But were the actions of the Red Hen really so much more “intolerant” than those of Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop? In...
6 Quotes: Free speech and the Supreme Court’s ruling in ‘NIFLA v. Becerra’
Earlier today the Supreme Court handed down a ruling inNIFLA v. Becerra, one of the most important free speech cases of the year. Althoughthe case was a challenge to a California law that imposed two different sets of requirements on pro-life pregnancy centers, the ruling issued by the Court has broad implications for the free expression of almost all Americans. Here are six quotes from the ruling that you should know about. Justice Thomas: “Although the licensed notice is content-based,...
Explainer: Supreme Court upholds free speech and free association for public sector workers
What just happened? In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled today in the case of Janus v. AFSCMEthat government employees who are represented by a public sector union to which they do not belong cannot be required to pay a fee to cover the costs of collective bargaining. The ruling overturned a forty-year-old precedent first set inAbood v. Detroit Board of Educationthat allows government agencies to mandate union dues or agency fees as a condition of employment. What was...
True diversity seen at Acton University, says college president
On Friday, Glenn Arbery, president of Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming, praised Acton University for the “good diversity” that it demonstrated. Arbery argues that diversity today is too often pursued for its own ends, rather than for the truly virtuous end of coherence, of “unity in the good.” At Acton University, he says, there is true diversity, not simply “praising… the colors on a palette.” ments follow, with permission, in full: Good Diversity Many good Catholics in their critique...
Statement from Rev. Robert A. Sirico on the Supreme Court’s Janus Decision
The Catholic Church has supported workers’ rights from Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum to the present day when es to defending worker safety and human dignity. Catholic social teaching has never said that people may be forced to join unions or financially support unions, private or public. Such coercion would violate the principle of free association upon which popes from Leo XIII have grounded the right to form and join unions. What the Supreme Court determined in the...
Radio Free Acton redux: Why Abraham Kuyper matters
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, we revisit a segment aired 2 years ago. Marc Vander Maas, Audio/Visual Manager at Acton, talks to Jordan Ballor, Senior Research Fellow and Director of Publishing at Acton, about why the Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper remains relevant to this day. Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: Read “How Kuyper can bring evangelicals and Catholics together” by Joe Carter Watch abook discussion on Kuyper and Islam Read “Themelios...
It’s official: the United States has entered a trade war
What do soybeans and washing machines have mon? One is grown in the United States, and the other produced in China, but both are affected by the recent clash on trade. A trade war is defined as, “a situation in which countries try to damage each other’s trade, typically by the imposition of tariffs or quota restrictions.” Yet, adjustments to trade are mon occurrence, so when do trade disagreements e trade wars? A trade war begins when a country institutes...
North Korea: Another ‘mode of development’? (video)
As noted, some members of the Alt-Right have an unusual affinity for North Korea as a bastion of nationalist, anti-imperialist, racial collectivism. Not all of the Kim dynasty’s supporters are utterly powerless. Aleksandr Dugin has stated North Korea represents another “mode of development” in opposition to Western capitalism and liberal democracy, one it may wage nuclear war to preserve. Dugin has been described as Vladimir “Putin’s Brain” or, because of his beard, “Putin’s Rasputin.” In 2008, it was Dugin who...
Charles Krauthammer on America as a ‘commercial republic’
“We are not an imperial power. We are mercial republic. We don’t take food; we trade for it. Which makes us something unique in history, an anomaly, a hybrid.” –Charles Krauthammer This week, wereceived the sad newsthat Charles Krauthammer has passed away due to a recent battle with cancer.As a longtime conservative columnist and media pundit, Krauthammer was known for his clear and mentary. Although he focused his attention on matters of foreign policy, Krauthammer had a memorable way of...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved