One-third of Americans can’t name all 3 branches of government 

A new survey found that over one-third of American adults can’t name all three branches of the federal government. 

The Annenberg Public Policy Center released its annual Constitution Day Civics Survey ahead of Constitution Day, or Sept. 17, commemorating the day the document was signed in 1787.

The 2026 survey found 65% of adults could name the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The other 35% couldn’t do it.

The question was open-ended, meaning researchers didn’t give people a list of possible answers.

Sixteen percent couldn’t even name one branch; 8% named one and 11% named two.

Congress was the best-known part of the federal government, with 77% of those surveyed naming it. Another 74% named the courts, while 72% named the president or executive branch.

The 65% who named all three branches matched the 2024 results. It was down from 70% in 2025, but the change wasn’t statistically significant.

Researchers also warned against making direct comparisons. The center used different survey panels in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Meanwhile, Americans know even less about the First Amendment, which grants five freedoms.

Seventy-three percent named freedom of speech. Yet only 43% named freedom of religion. That means most adults didn’t know the First Amendment protects religious freedom.

People knew even less about the other three aspects of the amendment.

Only 31% named freedom of assembly, while 29% recalled freedom of the press and just 12% knew about the right to petition the government.

Only 9% named all five rights, and nearly one-fourth could not name any.

Another 25% wrongly said the First Amendment protects the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment protects that right.

“Ignorance is costly,” Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director emerita of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, said in the survey’s release. “You can’t protect and cherish rights that you don’t know you have.”

The survey yielded better results on questions where people could choose from possible answers.

Eighty-three percent knew Congress can pass a bill over a presidential veto with a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

Sixty-nine percent knew a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling is still law. Yet, 18% thought the case would go back to Congress. That incorrect answer rose from 13% in 2024.

Sixty percent knew the Supreme Court has the last word when it disagrees with the president over whether a presidential action is constitutional.

Only half knew what the 10th Amendment says. It hands powers not given to the federal government to the states or the people. Thirty-seven percent were unsure.

The poor results are nothing new.

Heartlander News reported in 2024 that 70% of Americans would fail a basic civics test in a separate U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation survey. One-third didn’t know the federal government has three branches.

Heartlander News also reported that only 22% of eighth-graders reached the proficient level in civics on the 2022 Nation’s Report Card.

Schools that receive federal money must hold an educational program about the Constitution each year on Constitution Day. This mandate started in 2005, but the lack of basic civic knowledge still persists.