US Reports 52% High Science Trust vs 26% Globally but Shows 24-Point Religious Divide
US adults report markedly higher science trust and vaccine readiness than global peers per the 2025 Wellcome survey, yet religious, urban-rural, and education divides are substantially larger than in comparable nations. These splits carry direct implications for acceptance of vaccines and other medical interventions. Sustained gains among lower-trust subgroups remain fragile and require targeted communication strategies.
Wellcome surveyed over 140,000 adults using mixed-mode methods weighted to national populations. Americans also showed higher immediate vaccine acceptance at 45% versus 28% in Germany, yet the US displayed sharper internal splits: 19 points urban-rural and 24 points by education on whether science benefits most people. These patterns exceed averages in other high-income nations by 4-6 times. The rise in US trust since 2018 was driven by college-educated secular respondents, while religious and non-college groups posted modest gains of 3-4 points, suggesting uneven resilience rather than uniform polarization. Vaccine eagerness among religious Americans still outpaced peer-country counterparts, indicating that aggregate trust metrics may mask subgroup-specific intervention opportunities. Public health messaging that targets education gaps could therefore leverage existing US advantages before divides widen further.
Pew Research: By 2028 US religious-nonreligious gap on science benefits will exceed 30 points absent new outreach programs.
Sources (2)
- [1]Wellcome Global Monitor 2025(https://wellcome.org/reports/global-monitor-2025)
- [2]Pew Research Center Science and Society 2023(https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2023/10/09/trust-in-science/)