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                    "(\u00a9 Asier \u2013 stock.adobe.com)\nAnnual Survey Shows Persistent Gap In Basic Civics Knowledge\n\n\n\n\nIn A Nutshell\n\n\n\n\n35 percent of U.S. adults can\u2019t name all three branches of government, a figure statistically unchanged from 2024 and 2025.\n\n\n\nFreedom of speech is the only First Amendment right a majority can name, and recognition of it fell from 79 percent to 73 percent in a year.\n\n\n\nA quarter of adults mistakenly think the right to bear arms is a First Amendment protection; it\u2019s actually the Second Amendment.\n\n\n\nMost adults correctly answered the survey\u2019s birthright-citizenship question, an issue now before the courts (76 percent), and most also knew constitutional protections extend to immigrants without legal status (56 percent).\n\n\n\n\n\nAsk a random adult to name the three branches of government, and there\u2019s a real chance they\u2019ll draw a blank. A new nationwide survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania finds that 35 percent of U.S. adults can\u2019t name all three, a gap that has barely budged in three years of asking.\n\n\n\nReleased ahead of Constitution Day, the 2026 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey polled 1,034 adults nationwide between August 6 and 9. It\u2019s the kind of pop quiz that sounds easy on paper: executive, legislative, judicial. Yet only 65 percent of respondents could rattle off all three, statistically unchanged from 65 percent in 2024 and 70 percent in 2025.\n\n\n\nCivics knowledge doesn\u2019t stop at the branches. When researchers asked what rights the First Amendment protects, freedom of speech was the only one a majority could name, and even that number slipped. A quarter of respondents mixed up their amendments entirely, naming the right to bear arms, which actually falls under the Second.\n\n\n\nNaming the Three Branches of Government Hasn\u2019t Gotten Easier\n\n\n\nConstitution Day marks the anniversary of the document\u2019s signing on September 17, 1787, and APPC has used the occasion for years to check the public\u2019s grip on basic civics. This year\u2019s branch-of-government result puts more than a third of adults, roughly 1 in 3, unable to complete a task most middle schoolers learn in social studies class.\n\n\n\nThat stagnation is the real story here. Three years hovering in the same range, 65 percent, 70 percent, 65 percent, suggest that the gap hasn\u2019t meaningfully changed in recent surveys.\n\n\n\n\nMore than a third of U.S. adults fail to name the three branches of government in a new Constitution Day survey from Annenberg Public Policy Center. (Photo by Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash)\n\n\n\n\nFreedom of Speech Is the Only Right Most People Can Name\n\n\n\nKnowledge of the First Amendment fared worse than knowledge of the branches. Fewer than half, 43 percent, could name freedom of religion. Freedom of assembly and freedom of the press trailed further behind at 31 percent and 29 percent. Only 12 percent, roughly 1 in 10, named the right to petition the government.\n\n\n\nNine percent of respondents named all five protections. Nearly a quarter, 24 percent, couldn\u2019t name a single one. And freedom of speech recognition itself dropped six points, from 79 percent last year to 73 percent this year, a decline wide enough that APPC\u2019s researchers flagged it as a real shift rather than survey noise.\n\n\n\n\u201cIgnorance is costly,\u201d said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director emerita of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. \u201cYou can\u2019t protect and cherish rights that you don\u2019t know you have.\u201d\n\n\n\nThree Branches of Government Knowledge Sits Alongside Other Gaps\n\n\n\nOther findings from the survey point to a mixed civics picture. Most adults, 83 percent, correctly understand that a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress can override a presidential veto. But confusion crept in around the courts: nearly a fifth of respondents, 18 percent, mistakenly believe a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling gets kicked back to Congress rather than standing as the law.\n\n\n\nStates\u2019 rights fared no better. Asked what the 10th Amendment says about power-sharing between states and the federal government, only half of adults, 50 percent, gave the correct answer, while 37 percent said they weren\u2019t sure.\n\n\n\nNot every result was grim. Three-quarters of respondents, 76 percent, correctly answered the survey\u2019s birthright-citizenship question, that children born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens even if neither parent is a citizen, an issue now before the courts. Another 56 percent knew that constitutional protections extend to immigrants without legal status.\n\n\n\nCivics scores like these tend to draw a shrug rather than alarm, in part because the branches of government feel like trivia rather than something with daily stakes. But Jamieson\u2019s framing cuts the other way: a right is hard to protect when someone doesn\u2019t know they have it. Constitution Day exists to close exactly that kind of gap, and this year\u2019s numbers suggest it still has plenty of work ahead of it.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSurvey Notes\n\n\n\nMethodology\n\n\n\nSSRS, an independent research firm, fielded the 2026 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey for the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) on the SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus from August 6 to 9, 2026, among 1,034 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. Margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. Comparison data from 2024 and 2025 were collected on different APPC panels (the Institutions of Democracy panel and the Annenberg Science and Public Health panel, respectively), a methodological shift APPC notes in its own release when comparing year-over-year figures.\n\n\n\nFunding and Disclosures\n\n\n\nAnnenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1993, conducted and released the survey. Its release does not provide funding or sponsorship information for the survey.\n\n\n\nPublication Details\n\n\n\nNews Release: \u201cA Third of Americans Cannot Name the Three Branches of Government\u201d Publisher: Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania Posted: September 15, 2026 Survey team: Matt Levendusky (director, APPC Institutions of Democracy), Shawn Patterson Jr. (research analyst), Ken Winneg (APPC managing director of survey research), R. Lance Holbert (director, Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics), and Kathleen Hall Jamieson (APPC director emerita) Source: annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCalled \"brilliant,\" \"fantastic,\" and \"spot on\" by scientists and researchers, our acclaimed StudyFinds Analysis articles are created using an exclusive AI-based model with complete human oversight by the StudyFinds Editorial Team. For these articles, we use an unparalleled LLM process across multiple systems to analyze entire journal papers, extract data, and create accurate, accessible content. Our writing and editing team proofreads and polishes each and every article before publishing. With recent studies showing that artificial intelligence can interpret scientific research as well as (or even better) than field experts and specialists, StudyFinds was among the earliest to adopt and test this technology before approving its widespread use on our site. We stand by our practice and continuously update our processes to ensure the very highest level of accuracy. Read our AI Policy (link below) for more information.\n\n\n\nOur Editorial Team\n\n\n\n\n\nSteve Fink\n\n\n\nEditor-in-Chief\n\n\n\n\n\nJohn Anderer\n\n\n\nAssociate Editor"
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