Americans continue to express positive views about several federal government departments and agencies, but many of these views are tied to partisan differences.
Most of these partisan differences are similar to those of last year, but Republicans and Democrats’ opinions of the Justice Department differ, with Republicans rating the department even more negatively.
Today, a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (56%) say they have an unfavorable opinion of the Justice Department. compared to 50% last year. One third have a cheap Justice Department opinion, while 11% say they are not sure.
In contrast to 55% of Democrats and people close to Democrats have a positive impression of the Justice Department. About a third of Democrats (32%) say they have a unfavorable opinion and 12% are not sure. Democrats’ views are similar to those of a year ago.
Republicans’ ratings of the Department of Homeland Security have also become more negative over the past year: 41 percent are now positive, compared to 47 percent in 2023.
The Pew Research Center regularly conducts surveys to gauge public attitudes toward the federal government, including government agencies and departments. For this analysis, we surveyed 9,424 adults from July 1-7, 2024.
Everyone who responded to this survey is a member of the center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through nationwide, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to participate in surveys on a regular basis. This type of recruitment gives nearly all adults in the U.S. a chance to be selected. Surveys were conducted either online or by phone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted by gender, race, ethnicity, party affiliation, education, and other factors to represent the U.S. adult population. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.
Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline, and the survey methodology.
Many federal agencies are viewed positively overall
All in all 13 of the 16 federal agencies we asked about rated Americans more positively than negatively. According to our survey of 9,424 adults from July 1-7. Of those 13 agencies, 10 have a net favorability rating of 15 percentage points or more.
Topping the list are the National Park Service (76% positive), the US Postal Service (72%) and NASA (67%).
Smaller majorities have a positive impression of other agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (55% positive), the Department of Transportation (53%) and the Social Security Administration (53%).
Americans have mixed views about the Department of Education (44% positive, 45% negative, 11% unsure) and the Department of Justice (43% positive, 44% negative, 13% unsure).
The least popular federal agency of the 16 agencies surveyed is the Internal Revenue Service. Half of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the IRS, while 38% have a favorable opinion.
The agencies that were rated most favorably in our recent online surveys were also among the agencies that were rated most favorably in previous Pew Research Center telephone surveys. However, due to differences in question wording and survey modes, the specific percentages in the recent web surveys and previous telephone surveys are not directly comparable. (See the dropdown box below for more information.)
Changes in question wording and mode differences between online and telephone surveys
This poll is the second time Pew Research Center has examined public attitudes toward federal agencies through our online American Trends panel. We did so in 2023. Previous surveys measuring views on federal agencies, including surveys from 2020 and 2019, were conducted by telephone.
The results of our 2024 and 2023 web surveys are not directly comparable with the earlier telephone surveys for two reasons:
- The wording of the questions in the web surveys is different from that in previous telephone surveys. Participants in the online survey are given an explicit option to answer “not sure”. Participants in the telephone survey, on the other hand, had to voluntarily state that they have no opinion about an agency. This change generally leads to a larger proportion of participants not expressing an opinion.
- Online and telephone surveys often produce different results because respondents sometimes answer similar questions differently depending on the survey mode. This is called the “mode effect.”
These two factors mean that point estimates (for example, the proportion of respondents expressing a positive opinion of a single agency in our new survey and in an earlier telephone survey) should not be directly compared to measure change over time. This would result in confounding question wording and mode differences with change over time.
Despite this limitation, some general comparisons can be made. For example, if one agency exhibits a large partisan divide that was not evident in previous polls—while other agencies’ partisan divides have remained relatively stable—this change is likely not just the result of the switch from telephone polls to online polls.
Republicans have predominantly negative views of CDC and Department of Education
There are major partisan differences in Americans’ attitudes toward several federal agencies.
Democrats and people close to Democrats consistently hold a positive opinion of all 16 agencies surveyed.
Republicans and GOP supporters say more unfavorable as positive opinions for 11 of the 16 agencies.
The partisan differences are most pronounced in approval ratings for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (78% approval among Democrats versus 33% among Republicans) and the Environmental Protection Agency (73% versus 32%).
There are also major partisan differences regarding the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the FBI, the Department of Transportation, the Internal Revenue Service, and other agencies.
In contrast, clear majorities of both Democrats and Republicans give a positive rating to the National Park Service (80% versus 75%), the U.S. Postal Service (76% versus 68%), and NASA (74% versus 62%).
Among Democrats, the CDC and EPA receive some of the highest net popularity ratings
A large majority of Democrats (78%) rate the CDC positively, while only 12% rate the agency negatively. That’s a net advantage of 66 points for the CDC.
Seventy-three percent of Democrats have a positive view of the EPA, 61 percentage points more than the proportion who view it negatively.
Of the 16 federal agencies, Democrats have the worst opinion of the IRS, with their positive attitudes only 13 percentage points higher than their negative ones (50% versus 37%).
Republicans are far less positive about most authorities than Democrats
The agencies that Republicans most approve of are the National Park Service (net approval score of 67 points), NASA (45 points), and the Postal Service (41 points).
Although changes in polling methodology do not allow for a direct percentage comparison with previous polls, Republicans are more likely today than in the past to have a significantly more negative than positive opinion of several agencies.
In particular, Republicans’ negative opinion of the CDC appears to reflect a shift in attitudes related to the coronavirus pandemic. Previous polls by the center showed that Republicans were particularly critical of the CDC’s handling of the outbreak.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published on March 30, 2023. Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline, and the survey methodology.
