Young Americans’ confidence in the apparatus of government has dropped dramatically to one of the lowest levels in any prosperous country, a Financial Times analysis of Gallup data shows. 

The Gallup polls, conducted by surveying 70,000 people globally over the course of 2023 and 2024, found that less than a third of under-30s in the US trust the government. The proportion of US young people who said they lack freedom to choose what to do with their lives also hit a record high at 31 per cent in 2024 — a level worse than all other rich economies, bar Greece and Italy. 

“[For younger people in the US] the future seems kind of bleak,” said Julie Ray, managing editor at Gallup. 

While the Gallup poll does not cover the direct repercussions of US President Donald Trump’s second term, experts believe that rising political polarisation is likely to lead to a sharp drop in trust in future surveys. 

Connor Brennan, a 25-year-old financial economics PhD student at the University of Chicago, and disillusioned Republican, said he trusted the “big figures” in politics “a little less” now than in the past. 

“Friends, families these days are more and more torn apart by politics and seeing that (politics) taken as almost entertainment,” Brennan said. “It should be boring . . . it really has become more and more like, you watch the latest episode of the sitcom.”

The proportion of young people in the US reporting no confidence in the judicial system also hit a record high in 2024, while more than a third of under-30s also do not trust the police. 

“I would not say I trust the government — a lot of things that have changed quite recently that call the government’s ability to be honest with the American people into question,” said Daniel Quezada, a 22-year-old substitute teacher in Arkansas, adding that he also had a “profound, profound sense of scepticism” regarding the police after being peacefully involved in protests in 2020. 

Elsewhere in the world, young people in Greece and Italy are among the most dissatisfied with public services and confidence in institutions. Nordic economies, such as Finland, Denmark and Norway, tend to be the best performers.

Some 61 per cent of young people in the US also reported having recently experienced stress, the third-highest proportion among advanced economies after Greece and Canada. 

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show US emergency department visits for self-harm reached 384 people per 100,000 population among those aged 10 to 29 in 2022, up from 260 a decade earlier and four times the rate for those aged 30 and over.

The collapse in young people’s happiness in the US and elsewhere has been pinned on factors ranging from political polarisation, stagnating quality of life to difficulties in getting on the property ladder.

Haifang Huang, an economics professor at the University of Alberta, referred to “a laundry list” of factors, including labour-market challenges after the 2008-09 global financial crisis, the high cost of housing and rising inequality among the young exacerbated by inheritance and parental supports. “It is hard to evaluate their relative contributions.”

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his book, The Anxious Generation, blames the mental health crisis in all main Anglosphere countries on the mass adoption of smartphones, along with the advent of social media and addictive online gaming.

John Helliwell, a founding editor of Gallup’s World Happiness Report, said that the trends in the data supported the view that the decline in trust and wellbeing among young people “has something to do with the kind of stories being told on social media”. 

Political polarisation, meanwhile, had also resulted in a “situation where there’s no agreed set of common information”. 

“If there’s nobody who you believe, then of course, your trust is going to be low in everybody,” Helliwell said. “That’s been increasingly happening in the US, because people are denying each other’s facts and living in their own media isolation.”

While young Americans are relatively upbeat about their economic prospects — a reflection of their higher-than-average earnings and low unemployment rate — some are becoming gloomy about growth too.  

“The economy isn’t doing great — there were a lot of issues with relatively high inflation and high cost of living, massive wealth inequality, concerns with employment that were iterated by both sides in the election leading up to this year,” said Misha Newbold, a 20-year-old student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who grew up in Kansas. 

Newbold added that he disagreed with cuts to federal agencies undertaken by technology billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). “I think cutting employment opportunities, shrinking a lot of the government agencies that make this country run . . . is actually counter-productive to the employment concerns.”

Brennan, meanwhile, said he was increasingly concerned about the US’s fiscal position, with the national debt set to balloon over the coming decade. 

He also thinks an economic crisis borne of Trump’s policies would not be viewed by the president’s supporters as being down to mistakes made by the White House.

“That’s what worries me the most — that, even if we are confronted with issues that should cause us to have some sort of come to Jesus moment, I don’t think we’ll come to Jesus.”

Data visualisation by Valentina Romei and Alan Smith in London

Residents in large swaths of the southern U.S. on Sunday took stock of the devastation left in the wake of tornadoes, strong winds and dust storms over the weekend.

The severe weather left at least 37 people dead, and destroyed scores of homes.

This bout of storms was forecast to clear the East Coast by Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service.

In Missouri, where 12 people died, first responders and road crews worked to clear debris, restore power to homes, and distribute recovery supplies.

Gov. Mike Kehoe’s office said Sunday that hundreds of homes, schools and businesses were destroyed of severely damaged, with some burned from wildfires aggravated by high winds.

“The scale of devastation across our state is staggering,” Gov. Kehoe said. “While we grieve the lives of those lost, we are also focused on action.”

In Butler County, a man was killed after a tornado ripped through his home. Coroner Jim Akers told the AP that the twister left his home “unrecognizable” with “just a debris field.”

Hurricane force winds in Oklahoma, fueled deadly wildfires and dust storms. Residents there spent Saturday surveying fire damage, after more than 170,000 acres burned.

By Sunday afternoon, an early assessment from local officials identified more than 400 homes damaged statewide. Four people died and 142 others were injured due to the fires and winds, officials said.

Cheryl Rabet of Stillwater lost her home in the blazes, as well as two RVs she rented out, reported KOSU’s Lionel Ramos.

“We didn’t have a chance to grab anything,” she said, including their 16-year-old cat Momo. “We grabbed one of our cats and that was about it.”

The Red Cross and other relief efforts have been providing food and other resources for shelters across parts of Oklahoma and other affected regions.

Brady Moore, Stillwater city manager, warned that it may still be unsafe for residents to return to neighborhoods in the path of destruction, while crews work to repair downed powerlines and shut off water and gas lines.

Damage assessments in the majority of Alabama counties continued on Sunday, said Gov. Kay Ivey. Three people died in the state, she said.

In Troy, Ala., where a tornado flipped an 18-wheeler truck, about 200 people took shelter at a recreation center, reported local CBS station WAKA News.

“Right as the last people got in, the storm passed over, blowing out windows in cars in the parking lot, and tearing off part of the gymnasium roof,” said Dan Smith, the director of the city’s parks and recreation department. “Our sports complex, including the baseball and softball park, also suffered major damage. But we’re very fortunate—it could’ve been a lot worse.”

There were no injuries.

In Texas on Sunday, fire crews were battling a 9,500-acres blaze in Fredericksburg, in central Texas. The grass fire was more than half contained as of Sunday evening, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

Across the state, more than 42,000 acres were burning from 36 fires on Sunday night, the service said.

The threat of fires was expected to continue into the week, with a red flag warning – signaling a high risk of wildfire conditions — was expected to be reinstated for South Central Texas on Monday, as Texas Public Radio reported.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday that the state was granted federal assistance to help fight the fires.

“Texas is working around the clock to provide all necessary resources to local officials fighting wildfires in Gray and Gillespie counties,” he said.