Americans’ Trust in Information From News Organizations Has Risen in the Past Year

Americans are more likely than they were a year ago to trust information from national and local news organizations, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted in September 2026. Trust has increased modestly among supporters of both major political parties and across age groups. Trust in information from national and local news organizations has risen in both parties since 2025 % of U.S. adults who say they have a lot of or some trust in the information they get from … Note: 2016 figure for trust in information from social media sites is based on U.S. adults who use the internet, as opposed to all adults. Question wording has changed over time. Refer to the detailed responses for more details. Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 14-20, 2026. PEW RESEARCH CENTER Trust in information from national and local news organizations has risen in both parties since 2025 % of U.S. adults who say they have a lot of or some trust in the information they get from … Feb. 2016March 2017March 2018July 2019Nov. 2019June 2021Aug. 2022Sept. 2024March 2025Sept. 2025Sept. 2026National news organizationsAll U.S. adults7672717565586159675662Dem/Lean Dem8384838681787778816973Rep/Lean Rep7056576449354240534450Local news organizationsAll U.S. adults8285828579757174807075Dem/Lean Dem8587868984847983877881Rep/Lean Rep7984798374666366756469Social media sitesAll U.S. adults3435333926273337413738Dem/Lean Dem3637364330343838383740Rep/Lean Rep3233293522192737453737 Note: 2016 figure for trust in information from social media sites is based on U.S. adults who use the internet, as opposed to all adults. Question wording has changed over time. Refer to the detailed responses for more details. Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 14-20, 2026. PEW RESEARCH CENTER Overall, 62% of U.S. adults say they have a lot of or some trust in the information they get from national news organizations, a share that’s up 6 percentage points since September 2025 but still lower than a decade ago. Trust in local news organizations remains higher: 75% now say they have at least some trust in information from local outlets, up 5 points from a year ago. By contrast, 38% of Americans say they have at least some trust in information from social media sites, virtually unchanged from 37% in 2025. About this research This Pew Research Center analysis looks at Americans’ trust in information from national and local news organizations, as well as social media sites. Why we did this We have asked Americans about their trust in information from different sources since 2016. This analysis examines how trust has changed over time and varies across groups. How we did this For this analysis, we surveyed 5,193 U.S. adults from Sept. 14 to 20, 2026. Everyone who took part in these surveys is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel. The surveys represent the views of the full U.S. adult population. Here are the survey questions used for this analysis, the detailed responses and the methodology. Trust in news organizations has risen among both Republicans and Democrats Today, 50% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they have at least some trust in information from national news organizations, up from 44% in 2025. Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, 73% express at least some trust, up slightly from 69% last year. Trust in local news organizations has also risen slightly among Republicans over the past year, up from 64% in 2025 to 69% today. Among Democrats, 81% say they trust local news, up slightly from 78% in 2025. Meanwhile, trust in social media sites remains comparable across both parties. Roughly four-in-ten Republicans (37%) and Democrats (40%) say they have at least some trust in information from these sites. Moderate and liberal Republicans are more likely than conservative Republicans to trust national news organizations (57% vs. 46%). No major ideological differences appear among Democrats or in either party’s trust in local news organizations or social media sites. Trust in national and local news increases across most age groups Trust in national news organizations has increased across most age groups. Six-in-ten U.S. adults under 30 now say they have at least some trust in information from national news organizations, up from 51% in 2025. Adults 65 and older remain the most trusting: 70% express at least some trust, up from 62% a year ago. Americans’ trust in news organizations has risen across most age groups since 2025 % of U.S. adults who say they have a lot of or some trust in the information they get from … Note: 2016 figure for trust in information from social media sites is based on U.S. adults who use the internet, as opposed to all adults. Question wording has changed over time. Refer to the detailed responses for more details. Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 14-20, 2026. PEW RESEARCH CENTER Americans’ trust in news organizations has risen across most age groups since 2025 % of U.S. adults who say they have a lot of or some trust in the information they get from … Feb. 2016March 2017March 2018July 2019Nov. 2019June 2021Aug. 2022Sept. 2024March 2025Sept. 2025Sept. 2026National news organizationsAll U.S. adults7672717565586159675662Dem/Lean Dem8384838681787778816973Rep/Lean Rep7056576449354240534450Local news organizationsAll U.S. adults8285828579757174807075Dem/Lean Dem8587868984847983877881Rep/Lean Rep7984798374666366756469Social media sitesAll U.S. adults3435333926273337413738Dem/Lean Dem3637364330343838383740Rep/Lean Rep3233293522192737453737 Note: 2016 figure for trust in information from social media sites is based on U.S. adults who use the internet, as opposed to all adults. Question wording has changed over time. Refer to the detailed responses for more details. Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 14-20, 2026. PEW RESEARCH CENTER Trust in local news organizations has also risen across all age groups. Older Americans continue to be the most trusting of local news: 81% of adults ages 65 and older now say they have at least some trust in information from local news outlets, up from 76% in 2025. Trust has also risen among adults ages 18 to 29: 72% now express trust, up from 65% last year. Trust in information from social media sites has changed little over the past year but continues to vary widely by age. About half of Americans ages 18 to 29 have at least some trust in information from social media, around twice the share among those ages 65 and older (52% vs. 25%). Younger adults are also more likely than older adults to use social media for news in general. Republicans’ trust in national news organizations is now similar across age groups When considering party and age together, trust in national news organizations has increased across most age groups in both parties. Younger Democrats less likely than older Democrats to trust information from national news outlets % of U.S. adults who say they have a lot of or some trust in the information they get from … Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 14-20, 2026. PEW RESEARCH CENTER Younger Democrats less likely than older Democrats to trust information from national news outlets % of U.S. adults who say they have a lot of or some trust in the information they get from … PartyNational news organizationsLocal news organizationsSocial media sitesAges 18-29Rep/Lean Rep54704730-49Rep/Lean Rep46654450-64Rep/Lean Rep50723465+Rep/Lean Rep547124Ages 18-29Dem/Lean Dem65745530-49Dem/Lean Dem69794350-64Dem/Lean Dem77833365+Dem/Lean Dem869026 Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 14-20, 2026. PEW RESEARCH CENTER Among Democrats, older adults remain more likely than younger adults to trust national news organizations. A large majority of Democrats ages 65 and older (86%) say they have at least some trust in national news outlets, compared with 65% of Democrats ages 18 to 29. Republicans across all age groups are now more similar in their levels of trust in national news than they were a year ago. Just over half of Republicans ages 18 to 29 (54%) now say they have at least some trust in information from national news organizations, up 12 percentage points from 42% in 2025. Trust in national news has also increased among Republicans in older age groups. Note: This is an update of an analysis originally published on Oct. 27, 2022. Here are the questions used for this analysis, the detailed responses and the methodology. Kirsten Eddy is a senior researcher focusing on news and information at Pew Research Center.