Graphic credit Gallup, September 2, 2026

Gallup released its latest survey on perceived government corruption on September 2, 2026 showing that a record high 89-percent of American adults believe there is widespread corruption in the U.S. Government. This is up 10 points just since a year ago, up 16 points since 2024, and up 30 points since 2006. The 89-percent figure for the United States is also 30 points higher than the median level of perceived corruption in the 38 developed counties of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as of a 2025 Gallup survey.

Since Gallup has been tracking perceived corruption in countries around the world (presumably since 2006), the trend shows an overall decline in OECD countries while the United States has been rising. In 2025, the perceived corruption in the United States rose to the top of all 38 OECD countries for the first time – even before the 10-point rise over the past year.

Other noteworthy data from the Gallup surveys on corruption: Since 2023, only four countries out of the 132 in which Gallup has posed this question annually have scored nominally above the 89% recorded in the U.S. this year: Lebanon in 2024 (92%), Peru in 2025 (92%), and Ghana and Nigeria in 2024 (both 90%).

While many issues in the United States are sharply polarized along partisan lines, the overwhelming majority of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, appear to agree that government corruption is a serious problem in the United States. The significant growth in perceived corruption in the U.S. Government over the past 30 years, and even over the past couple of years, correlates to the ever-expanding growth in the federal government and its spending. U.S. Government debt recently hit $40 trillion, reaching an all-time high relative to U.S. GDP of approximately 125-percent (it was about 55-percent in 2001).

The full content of the Gallup survey is provided in this link: https://news.gallup.com/poll/713933/record-high-say-government-corruption-widespread.aspx

Steve Dewey is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, a fellow at the Ben Franklin Fellowship, founder of GeoFinancial Trends, LLC (www.geofinancialtrends.org) and writes on Substack (stevedewey.substack.com).  He can be reached at steve@geofinancialtrends.org