Bipartisanship sounds abstract until you put numbers next to it. The data in this article shows that Americans see partisan cooperation as one of the country’s biggest problems, while also expressing low trust in federal institutions and deep frustration with the political system overall.
Table of contents
- At a glance
- Why bipartisanship ranks so high
- Trust, fatigue, and political mood
- Party gaps in approval
- What Americans want to change
- How to read the numbers
At a glance
- 60% of Americans say Democrats and Republicans working together is a very big problem facing the country (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.).
- 62% say inflation is a very big problem, which is the only issue in this set that ranks above bipartisanship (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.).
- 22% say they trust the federal government to do what is right just about always or most of the time (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it).
- 65% say they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
- 79% describe politics in the U.S. these days using negative or critical words (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
- 61% of Republicans approve of Congress, while just 6% of Democrats do, a 55-point gap (Gallup, Record Party Gaps in Job Approval of Supreme Court, Congress).
The numbers point to a system where bipartisanship is not just desired in theory; it is tightly connected to public dissatisfaction, low trust, and hard partisan sorting. (Pew Research Center, Gallup)
Why bipartisanship ranks so high
When people are asked to name the biggest problems facing the country, the ability of Democrats and Republicans to work together lands near the top. That matters because it suggests bipartisanship statistics are not just about congressional procedure or elite negotiation. They are a public signal of whether the political system feels capable of solving problems.
In Pew Research Center’s ranking of top problems facing the U.S., 60% say partisan cooperation is a very big problem (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.). That places it ahead of several other major concerns:
- 57% say the affordability of healthcare is a very big problem (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.).
- 55% say drug addiction is a very big problem (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.).
- 53% say the federal budget deficit is a very big problem (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.).
- 51% say illegal immigration is a very big problem (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.).
- 49% say gun violence is a very big problem (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.).
- 48% say violent crime is a very big problem (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.).
That ranking is useful because it frames bipartisanship as a governance issue rather than a symbolic one. If the public believes major parties cannot work together, then every other policy area inherits a credibility problem.
Partisan splits change the meaning of the problem
The same Pew Research Center data shows that people often identify the same headline issues but differ sharply by party. For example, 80% of Republicans and Republican-leaners say inflation is a very big problem, compared with 46% of Democrats and Democratic-leaners (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.). Likewise, 71% of Republicans say the federal budget deficit is a very big problem, compared with 35% of Democrats (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.).
That kind of split matters for bipartisanship statistics because it shows the country is not only divided on solutions. It is divided on which problems deserve priority. That makes cooperation harder, because negotiation requires at least partial agreement on the agenda.
Trust, fatigue, and political mood
Bipartisanship is not just a legislative question. It sits inside a broader public mood that looks tired, skeptical, and often negative.
Pew Research Center reports that 22% of Americans say they trust the federal government to do what is right just about always or most of the time, while 59% say they trust it only some of the time and 17% say they never trust it (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it). That distribution is important because trust shapes how people interpret compromise. If people trust institutions, compromise can look like problem-solving. If they do not, compromise can look like weakness or failure.
The same trust data also shows sharp differences across groups:
| Group | Trust the federal government all or most of the time |
|---|---|
| Democrats and Democratic-leaners | 35% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
| Conservative Republicans | 7% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
| Moderate and liberal Republicans | 17% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
| Asian adults | 36% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
| Hispanic adults | 30% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
| Black adults | 27% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
| White adults | 19% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
| Adults under 50 | 20% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
| Adults 50 and older | 25% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
| Adults with a college degree | 26% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
| Adults without a college degree | 21% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it) |
The important point is not just that trust is low. It is that trust is uneven, which means the public experiences the same institutions through very different lenses. That creates a more difficult environment for bipartisan messaging because the audience is already fragmented.
The emotional tone of politics is mostly negative
Pew Research Center’s “Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics” data shows how emotionally drained the political environment feels. 65% say they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics, and 55% say they always or often feel angry about politics (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics). Only 10% say they always or often feel hopeful, and just 4% say they always or often feel excited (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
That is a major clue for interpreting bipartisanship statistics. When politics feels exhausting, even practical compromise can be perceived as stale, performative, or too slow. A politics of exhaustion is rarely a politics of patience.
The same survey also shows how people describe the system itself:
- 79% use negative or critical words to describe politics in the U.S. these days (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
- 2% use positive terms (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
- 22% say the political system has no strengths at all (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
- 63% say they have little or no confidence in the future of the U.S. political system (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
Those numbers make bipartisanship feel less like a bonus and more like a rescue mechanism. In a climate this sour, cooperation is not a luxury. It is one of the few signals that politics may still be capable of earning public confidence.
Party gaps in approval
One of the strongest signs that bipartisanship is under strain is the gap in approval of core institutions. Gallup reports that 61% of Republicans approve of Congress, compared with 6% of Democrats and 19% of independents (Gallup, Record Party Gaps in Job Approval of Supreme Court, Congress). That produces a 55-point Republican-Democrat gap in approval of Congress (Gallup, Record Party Gaps in Job Approval of Supreme Court, Congress).
A gap that large changes the baseline for cooperation. If one party’s voters broadly approve and the other party’s voters broadly disapprove, then a bipartisan outcome can be praised as a win by one side and dismissed as betrayal by the other. That makes the political reward structure unstable.
The Supreme Court gap is even larger at 64 points between Republicans and Democrats (Gallup, Record Party Gaps in Job Approval of Supreme Court, Congress). While that is not the same as bipartisanship directly, it reinforces the same pattern: public opinion is filtered through party identity before it reaches institutional judgment.
Congress approval over time
Gallup’s broader trend data adds historical perspective. Between January 2023 and December 2024, average approval of Congress was 12% among Republicans, 18% among independents, and 20% among Democrats (Gallup, Record Party Gaps in Job Approval of Supreme Court, Congress). That means even when partisans differ in direction, the overall level of satisfaction remains low.
The historical figures also show how unusual the current environment is compared with earlier moments. In February 2021, 61% of Democrats approved of Congress and 8% of Republicans did (Gallup, Record Party Gaps in Job Approval of Supreme Court, Congress). Back in October 2001, 89% of Republicans approved of Congress (Gallup, Record Party Gaps in Job Approval of Supreme Court, Congress).
Those points do not tell a simple story of decline, but they do show volatility. That volatility is itself a problem for bipartisanship because durable cooperation depends on institutional legitimacy that survives election cycles.
What Americans want to change
The public is not only frustrated. It is also receptive to structural fixes. That matters because many bipartisanship debates stall when people assume the problem is only personal behavior. The data suggests Americans are open to institutional redesign.
In Pew Research Center’s politics survey, 79% favor putting a maximum age in place for elected officials in Washington, D.C. (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics). Support is also high for limits on lifetime power in the judiciary and Congress:
- 74% support age limits for Supreme Court justices (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
- 82% of Democrats support age limits for Supreme Court justices (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
- 68% of Republicans support age limits for Supreme Court justices (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
- 90% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents favor term limits for members of Congress (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
- 86% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents favor term limits for members of Congress (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
That is a notable pattern. Even amid deep partisan disagreement, large majorities converge on the idea that the system itself should be constrained. In other words, people may disagree on policy, but they share skepticism about entrenched power.
Structural reform is more popular than institutional expansion
The same data shows mixed views on enlarging the Supreme Court. 46% favor increasing the number of justices, while 51% oppose it (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics). That near-even split suggests that some institutional changes divide the public more than they unite it.
By contrast, reforms like age limits and term limits draw broader support. That matters for bipartisanship because it implies that reform proposals are most viable when they are framed as guardrails rather than as partisan advantage.
Views of representatives are local, but still partisan
The public’s judgment of lawmakers also tracks party context. Pew Research Center found that 44% of Republicans say their district’s House member is doing a good job, compared with 41% of Democrats (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics). Among Republicans represented by a Republican House member, 52% say that member is doing a good job, but that falls to 30% when the member is a Democrat (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics). The same pattern appears on the other side: 49% of Democrats represented by a Democratic House member say that member is doing a good job, compared with 29% of Democrats represented by a Republican House member (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
That is a compact illustration of why bipartisanship can be politically expensive. People are more generous when representation aligns with identity, and more skeptical when it does not.
How to read the numbers
Bipartisanship statistics work best when you read them as connected indicators rather than isolated poll results. The most important pattern across the data is this:
- Americans see partisan cooperation as a top national problem (Pew Research Center, Top problems facing the U.S.).
- They trust the federal government at relatively low levels (Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in federal government and attitudes toward it).
- They describe politics in emotionally negative terms and feel exhausted by it (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
- They split sharply by party in their approval of Congress and other institutions (Gallup, Record Party Gaps in Job Approval of Supreme Court, Congress).
- They are still open to reforms that would limit entrenched power, especially term and age limits (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics).
Taken together, those facts suggest that the public is not simply asking for nicer rhetoric. It is signaling that the political system needs more credibility, more predictability, and more evidence that compromise can produce results.
For anyone looking at bipartisanship statistics as a signal rather than a slogan, the main takeaway is straightforward: Americans do not appear to be rejecting cooperation itself. They are rejecting a political environment that makes cooperation feel rare, fragile, and easy to undo.