Most Americans value staying informed. Survey says many don't feel it
Most Americans value staying informed. Survey says many don't feel it
Drew Pittock, USA TODAYSun, June 7, 2026 at 11:56 PM UTC
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Keeping up with the news and staying well-informed may be more exhausting than ever, but Americans still think it's a vital part of their civic duty. There's just one problem — a significant portion of people don't practice what they preach.
That's according to a new Pew Research Center survey, which found that Americans "overwhelmingly" believe that it's "extremely or very important" to stay informed about everything from immigration and elections to health care and foreign policy. But when it comes to actually educating themselves, far fewer Americans feel "highly informed" about any given topic.
Pew's survey, conducted from March 6 to March 9, included 1,031 respondents. They were asked about 11 key issues, including health care, elections, presidential powers, immigration, taxes and the economy, social security, U.S. foreign policy, gun regulations, childhood vaccines, technology and media regulations, and marijuana regulations.
A new Pew Research Center survey suggests there's a stark divide between those who say Americans should be informed on various topics and being informed themselves.
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What are the findings?
Among the findings, 82% of respondents said it's very or extremely important that Americans are informed about health care, but only 34% consider themselves so.
When it comes to presidential powers, or "what the president can and cannot do," as Pew phrased it, 80% think it's vitally important that Americans are well-informed, compared with 36% who feel as though they are.
A new Pew Research Center survey suggests there's a stark divide between those who say Americans should be informed on various topics and being informed themselves.
The only topic to meet the 50% threshold for those who consider themselves very or extremely informed was voting and election processes. Still, 50% is far below the 82% of respondents who believe every American should be well-informed about the topic.
At the lower end of the survey's spectrum and considerably more balanced sits marijuana regulation, with only 31% of respondents considering the topic to be important for people to understand, and 23% of respondents fancying themselves as highly informed on the matter.
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Here is each topic that Pew asked about, along with the percentage of Americans who feel extremely or very informed about them, versus those who think it's important for everyone to understand them.
The health care system: 34% vs. 82%.
Voting and election processes: 50% vs. 82%.
What the president can and cannot do: 36% vs. 80%.
Immigration and citizenship policies: 39% vs. 76%.
Economic and tax policies: 24% vs. 75%.
Social security: 31% vs. 72%.
U.S. foreign policy: 23% vs. 71%.
Gun regulation: 33% vs. 69%.
Childhood vaccine policies: 31% vs. 69%.
Federal regulation of technology and media companies: 15% vs. 52%.
Marijuana regulation: 23% vs. 31%.
A new Pew Research Center survey suggests there's a stark divide between those who say Americans should be informed on various topics and being informed themselves.Where is the information coming from?
Pew asked respondents where they gather information about a given topic, including news media, government sources, social media, social circles, education spaces, or "some other source."
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Across the board, the traditional news media outperformed each information source, with government sources and social media coming in second and evenly split across most topics.
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Social circles, which include family, friends, and acquaintances, are largely the fourth most popular source of information, while school or formal education is one of the least popular sources.
There are, of course, some outliers. For instance, school or formal education trails behind the news media when it comes to what the president can and cannot do. Meanwhile, when people want to learn about Social Security, they turn to government sources just as often as they do news media.
A new Pew Research Center survey suggests there's a stark divide between those who say Americans should be informed on various topics and being informed themselves.The demographic divides
On the whole, Pew noted, older respondents were more likely than their younger counterparts to say that "it's important for people to stay informed about several topics – and to feel informed on these topics themselves."
Additionally, younger adults turn to social media for information at higher rates than older Americans, who still predominantly rely on government sources and traditional news media.
Politically, there isn't a significant split along partisan lines. Both Democrats and Republicans "broadly show similar patterns in how they evaluate the importance of staying informed about various topics, as well as how informed they say they are," Pew noted.
There are some discrepancies, which reflect party platforms and preferences.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are more likely (88%) than respondents across the aisle (74%) to say it's extremely or very important that people stay informed about what a president can and cannot do, while childhood vaccines also saw a partisan divide at 73% to 65%, respectively.
Conversely, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say that they are personally well-informed on several topics, including voting and election processes (54% vs. 46%), immigration policies (44% vs. 35%), and gun regulation (39% vs. 26%).
Drew Pittock covers national trending news for USA TODAY. He can be reached at DPittock@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Americans value staying informed but knowledge gap persists: Survey
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