This Pew Research Center analysis explores how adults in 25 countries rate the morality of other people in their country. It also describes how many people around the world consider different behaviors (such as drinking alcohol, gambling and having affairs) to be morally wrong.

Pew Research Center conducts high-quality research to inform the public, journalists and leaders. Studying religion and related topics, such as morality, has long been part of the Center’s research around the world. Learn moreabout Pew Research Centerand our otherresearch on religion.

For data outside the United States, this analysis draws on nationally representative surveys of 28,333 adults conducted from Jan. 8 to April 26, 2025. All surveys were conducted over the phone with adults in Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Surveys were conducted face-to-face in Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa and Turkey. In Australia, we used a mixed-mode probability-based online panel.

In the U.S., we surveyed 3,605 adults from March 24 to 30, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’sAmerican Trends Panel (ATP). This report also includes some findings from a separate ATP survey of 8,937 U.S. adults conducted from May 5 to 11, 2025.

Here are thequestions used for this analysis, along with responses, and thesurvey methodology.

Americans are more likely than people in other countries surveyed in 2025 to question the morality of their fellow countrymen, according to Pew Research Center surveys in 25 countries.

We asked people around the world to rate the morality and ethics of others in their country.

In nearly all countries surveyed, more people say that others in their country have somewhat or verygoodmorals than say their compatriots display somewhat or verybadlevels of morality.

The United States is the only place we surveyed where more adults (ages 18 and older) describe the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad (53%) than as good (47%).

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. But partisan politics appear to play a role.

Source: Drudge Report