A person, wearing a MAGA hat, rests in the shade on the day of Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., May 17, 2026. REUTERS/Seth Herald
As of next month, the U.S. will have made it 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but according to a new survey reported on by The Hill, a shockingly large portion of Americans have a grim prediction for how things will go over the next 250 years.
Reporting Tuesday on the findings from a new Reuters/Ipsos poll surveying Americans about the state of the country and its future, The Hill noted that over a third of respondents, 38 percent, predicted that the U.S. will not survive to its 500th anniversary in 2276, instead suggesting that it will have broken up into multiple separate nations by then. The remaining 62 percent predicted that it would be able to endure.
The pessimism was more acute for Democratic respondents, with 40 percent predicting that the U.S. would not survive another 250 years. Only 26 percent of Republicans chose the same answer.
"The poll comes amid heightened political tensions in the U.S., with multiple instances of political violence in the last few years and increasingly heated rhetoric," The Hill explained
This fatal forecast comes on the heels of worsening political polarization in the U.S. over the last few decades, with opposite ends of the American political spectrum holding views that are increasingly incompatible with each other. This has lead to some grim predictions for the nation's future, with some suggesting that a new civil war is imminent, and others suggesting that it will inevitably "balkanize" into two or more separate countries. Former GOP congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has been among the most prominent proponents of the latter idea, repeatedly suggesting over the years that a "national divorce" is necessary.
The rest of the findings from the Reuters/Ipsos poll did little to suggest that Americans have much confidence in the health of the country overall.
"The Reuters/Ipsos poll also found that 30 percent of respondents said the U.S. is the world’s best country, a decrease from 38 percent who thought so when asked in November 2017," The Hill detailed. "In the more recent survey, 48 percent said the country is among many excellent countries, 13 percent said the U.S. isn’t great in any way and 8 percent did not answer the question or were unsure."
It continued: "In other recent polling, Americans have also expressed little faith in their country’s leadership and governmental structure. An early June poll from Quinnipiac University found more than half of Americans saying that the system of democracy was not working in their country. President Trump, a polarizing figure himself, was sitting at a 40.30 percent approval rating in a polling average from Decision Desk HQ on Tuesday morning, with his disapproval rating at 56.8 percent."