Over a Third of Americans Can't Name All 3 Branches of Government
A 2026 Annenberg civics survey found 35% of U.S. adults can't name all three branches of government, and only 9% can name all five First Amendment rights.
A new civics survey is landing with an uncomfortable data point: a large chunk of the American public cannot name the basic structure of its own government. More than a third of Americans can’t name all three branches of government, according to the 2026 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey.
The headline numbers
65% of U.S. adults can name the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, while 35% couldn’t name all three: 11% named two branches, 8% identified one and 16% couldn’t name any.
The survey was conducted August 6 to 9, 2026, among a nationally representative sample of 1,034 U.S. adults, and the 65% figure is not a statistically significant change from 70% in 2025 and 65% in 2024. In other words, the needle isn’t moving.
First Amendment blind spots
When asked in an open-ended question to name the specific rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, 73% cited freedom of speech, down from 79% in 2025. Fewer than half (43%) named freedom of religion, and fewer than one-third named freedom of assembly (31%) or freedom of the press (29%). Just over 1 in 10 (12%) named the right to petition the government.
Just 9% named all five First Amendment rights, while 24% couldn’t name any of them. Notably, 25% of respondents mistakenly said the right to bear arms, protected under the Second Amendment, is a First Amendment right.
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Why traders should care
Civic literacy might feel far from a P&L, but policy risk is a real market input. Regulatory fights, court challenges, and legislative gridlock all move sectors, and a public that can’t identify the branches is a public that struggles to price political risk in real time.
“Ignorance is costly,” Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director emerita of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, said about the poll. “You can’t protect and cherish rights that you don’t know you have.”
Other data points from the survey
On states’ rights, people were asked about the 10th Amendment: only 50% got the correct answer and 37% didn’t know. On birthright citizenship, 76% of people answered correctly that a child born on U.S. soil is an American citizen even if the parents are not.
Over half of survey respondents (56%) know it’s inaccurate to say that people who are in the United States illegally do not have any rights under the U.S. Constitution.
Options market and stocks to watch
Civics gaps don’t trade directly, but adjacent names ride on education, media, and civic engagement themes:
- META: watch for any renewed political speech and moderation debates tied to First Amendment discussion.
- GOOGL: watch YouTube and Search as civic information distribution channels heading into election cycles.
- CHGG: watch education-adjacent names for any policy push on civics curriculum.
- NYT: watch news publishers as press-freedom awareness stays in focus.
- PARA: watch legacy media as trust and civic knowledge trends shape ad and subscription demand.
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