We asked more than 2,500 Americans to describe the United States in one word.

Here’s what they said.

Linley Sanders, Simran Parwani and Katie Marriner

Updated June 25, 2026 at 7:30 AM

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Analysis by Linley Sanders. Design and development by Katie Marriner and Simran Parwani. Editing by Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, Linda Gorman and Ashlyn Still.

Methodology

The AP-NORC poll of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20, 2026, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

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