53% of Americans rate others living in the U.S. 'morally bad,' compared to 7% of Canadians: survey

A survey of 25 countries by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center has found that Americans are most likely to rate others living in their country as morally or ethically bad. In fact, it was the only country where more people defined others as bad than good.

At the other end of the scale was Canada.

Participants in the survey were asked: “Generally, how would you rate the morality of (survey country nationality) – are their morals very good, somewhat good, somewhat bad or very bad?”

In America, four per cent of respondents chose “very good,” while 43 per cent said “somewhat good,” for a total of 47 per cent on the good side. Meanwhile, 11 per cent thought other Americans were “very bad,” and another 42 per cent went with “somewhat bad,” putting 53 per cent on the bad side.

Several other countries — Turkey, Brazil, Greece and France — had a near fifty-fifty split on the good and bad responses, but the United States was the only one where the bad outweighed the good.

Canadians, however, were the most likely to view their fellows as morally and ethically good. To the same question, more than a third of Canadians said others in this country were very good (38 per cent) and more than half chose somewhat good (54 per cent). A mere five per cent said they thought Canadians were somewhat bad, and just two per cent chose very bad. (One per cent did not know or refused to answer.)

We asked people around the world to rate the morality and ethics of others in their country. The U.S. is the only place we surveyed where more adults describe the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad than good. See our full morality report here:… pic.twitter.com/e185eBRERH

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) March 5, 2026

“Because we have never asked this question before, we don’t know whether a majority of Americans have long held a skeptical view of the ethics of fellow Americans, or if it’s something new – and if so, what’s driving it,” the researchers wrote in presenting their findings. “But partisan politics appear to play a role.”

They noted that Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party were much more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to rate fellow Americans as morally and ethically bad or very bad — 60 per cent versus 46 per cent. “And previous research has shown that rising numbers of both Republicans and Democrats say  people in the other party are immoral ,” they wrote.

“Another possibility could be that Americans are more moralistic, in general, than people in other countries — that is, they’re more inclined to judge various behaviors to be immoral or sinful,” they wrote. “But the results of other survey questions don’t support the idea that the U.S. public is especially judgmental.”

For example, the researchers asked people in the 25 countries whether nine different behaviours — including having an abortion and drinking alcohol — were morally unacceptable, acceptable or not an issue. On most of the nine, U.S. respondents fell in the middle of the pack. On whether homosexuality was morally wrong, for instance, 39 per cent of Americans said it was, compared to just five per cent of Swedes, 15 per cent of Canadians, and 96 per cent of Nigerians.

Canadians were generally a little less inclined to view most of the behaviours as morally unacceptable compared to their American counterparts.

Extramarital affairs were deemed morally wrong by 90 per cent of Americans but just 76 per cent of Canadians. Viewing pornography was declared wrong by 48 per of Canadians and 52 per cent of Americans.

Gambling was seen as wrong by 27 per of Canadians and 29 per cent of Americans. And marijuana usage was thought wrong by 19 per cent in Canada (where the drug has been legalized) and 23 per cent in America — the lowest two countries on both those topics.

There was a wider gap on some issues that have become more politicized in recent years. Abortion was seen as morally wrong by 19 per cent of Canadians but 47 per cent of Americans.

Researchers surveyed a total of 28,333 adults between Jan. 8 and April 26, 2025, using a mix of phone and face-to-face interviews. The margin of error was plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.

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