Unemployment concerns, Gaza, Epstein, trust and medicine, guns, and team names: August 1 - 4, 2025 Economist/YouGov Poll

This week’s Economist/YouGov poll covers…

• Longstanding doubts about unemployment data
• A shift in sympathies toward the Palestinians and away from Israel
• Continuing bipartisan skepticism of Trump's handling of the Epstein inquiry
• Diverging red and blue approaches to getting medical information
• Bipartisan support for two gun-control measures and a partisan split on assault rifles
• Two new team names in pro sports with few supporters

Unemployment

• Slightly more Americans completely or somewhat distrust federal data on the economy than trust it (45% vs. 42%)
  • This marks an 8-percentage-point decrease in trust in federal economic data since March, when this question was last asked

• Many Americans (44%) believe the government undercounts the number of unemployed people in the U.S.; 8% think the government overcounts the number of unemployed people and 21% think that government unemployment numbers are accurate
• Democrats are more likely than Republicans (54% vs. 32%) to believe that the government is undercounting unemployment

• This marks a reversal from when the question was asked during Joe Biden's presidency — more Republicans than Democrats said then that the government was undercounting unemployment. However, in the final three years of Trump's first term, Democrats were more likely than Republicans to think unemployment numbers were being undercounted

• The share of Americans who say that unemployment has increased in the past month is currently 37% — a new high in Trump's second term; 12% think unemployment has decreased, and 22% think it has stayed the same

• While the share of Americans who have observed an increase in unemployment has risen, the share who say that unemployment is a very or somewhat serious problem has changed little over the past year, as has concern about potential job loss among currently employed Americans
• A separate YouGov survey from earlier this week found that half of Americans (50%) strongly or somewhat disapprove of Trump firing the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); only 27% approve of this action
• 42% think Trump's firing of the BLS commissioner was primarily politically motivated; far fewer — 22% — think it was motivated by a desire to improve the accuracy of economic statistics. 13% think both motivations played an equal role

Gaza

• Broadly speaking, more Americans think the U.S. does than does not have a special responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance when people in other countries need help (49% vs. 34%)
• Views on funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are divided, though more favor cuts than expansion: 21% think the agency should be expanded, 26% think it should be kept the same, 16% think it should be reduced, and 17% think it should be eliminated entirely
• Far more Americans favor increasing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians than decreasing it (38% vs. 18%). Support for increasing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians has risen in recent weeks

• Far more Americans support decreasing military aid to Israel than increasing it (42% vs. 13%). Support for increasing military aid to Israel has fallen in recent weeks

• 29% of Americans say they sympathize more with the Israels in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and 26% with the Palestinians — the narrowest gap since before the current war in Gaza began in October 2023

• More Americans say that "Israel's attacks on Gaza are unjustified and harm too many innocent Palestinians" (41%) than say that "Israel is justified in its attacks on Gaza as a response to threats from Hamas" (32%)
• Americans are divided on whether Trump's support of Israel has gone too far (36%) or is about right (32%); only 7% think he is not supportive enough of Israel
• 71% of Americans — including 87% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans — believe there is a hunger crisis in Gaza
• 43% of Americans — including 65% of Democrats and 19% of Republicans — believe that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinian civilians. This marks a new high for belief that Israel is committing genocide since we began asking this question in January 2024; at that time, 35% said it was a genocide

• A large majority of Americans — 78% — strongly or somewhat support a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas
• 49% of Americans — including 70% of Democrats and 23% of Republicans — think that Palestinians should have their own state; 17% think they should not
  • Opinion on Palestinian statehood has changed little since the question was last asked in May 2024

The Epstein investigation

• Americans are three times as likely to strongly or somewhat disapprove as to approve of Trump's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation (60% vs. 20%)
  • Republicans are more likely to approve than disapprove of Trump's handling of the Epstein investigation (37% vs. 30%). Nearly all Democrats (85%) disapprove and only 5% approve

• Net approval of Trump's handling of the Epstein investigations — meaning the share who strongly or somewhat approve minus the share who strongly or somewhat disapprove — has fallen in recent weeks. Among Republicans, it declined from +21 in last week's poll to +7 in this week's

• Two-thirds (68%) of Americans — including 81% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans — believe the government is covering up evidence it has about Epstein
• Half (50%) of Americans believe that Epstein was murdered, while only 16% think that he committed suicide. About half of Democrats (53%) and Republicans (51%) believe Epstein was murdered
  • The share of Americans who believe Epstein was murdered has risen in recent weeks: A YouGov survey of U.S. adults conducted in early July found that 39% believed he was, compared to 50% of Americans now

• 47% of Americans think that Trump was involved in crimes allegedly committed by Epstein
• An even larger share — 68% — think Trump knew some (24%) or a lot (44%) about the sex crimes committed by Epstein against underage girls before investigations into Epstein began

• Most Americans (64%) want Ghislaine Maxwell to testify before Congress about allegations against Epstein and his associates
• Only one in five (21%) think that if Maxwell does testify, she should receive a reduction in her prison sentence; 52% think her sentence should not be reduced
• Only 17% of Americans say they would trust Maxwell's testimony if it is given in exchange for a reduced sentence; 44% say they would not trust it

Vaccines and health advice

• Most Americans (78%) believe that vaccines are generally very or somewhat safe. Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to believe this (91% vs. 68%)
  • Opinion on vaccine safety has changed little since June
• Two-thirds (67%) of Americans say that the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks; 18% say that the risks outweigh the benefits

• Most Americans trust their own doctors for medical advice (81% trust them "a lot" or "somewhat"). Trust is lower for other potential sources of medical advice
  • 66% of Americans trust medical researchers for medical advice a lot or somewhat, 54% trust the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and 49% trust public health officials
    • For all three potential sources for medical advice, Republicans are less likely than Democrats to say they trust them; fewer than half of Republicans say they trust each
    • Since early January (before Trump took office), there has been a decline in the shares of Democrats who trust advice from public health officials (down by 9 points) and the CDC (-8)
  • Only 26% of Americans say they trust medical advice from pharmaceutical companies

• More Americans strongly or somewhat disapprove (44%) than approve (37%) of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s handling of his job as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Approval of Kennedy has remained stable since mid-June

Guns

• A majority (55%) of Americans think that laws covering the sale of handguns should be made more strict; 14% think they should be made less strict, and 24% say there should be no change
  • Opinion on handgun laws has changed little since a year ago
• The vast majority (83%) of Americans — including over 80% of Democrats and Republicans — strongly or somewhat favor requiring criminal and mental background checks for all those buying guns, including at gun shows and private sales
• A large majority (73%) also favor red flag laws, which allow a court to temporarily remove guns from people who are believed to pose a danger to themselves or others; 87% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans are supportive of such laws
• A ban on assault rifles is supported by 60% of Americans, including 86% of Democrats but only 39% of Republicans

Team names

• Americans are divided over the names of two professional sports teams that recently abandoned longstanding names referencing Native Americans, but more Americans prefer the old names to the new ones
  • 35% of Americans prefer the new Commanders name over the old Redskins name for Washington, D.C.'s NFL team, while 45% prefer the Redskins name
  • 35% prefer the new Guardians name for Cleveland's Major League Baseball team, while 47% prefer the old Indians name
• Majorities of Democrats prefer the new names: 56% of Democrats prefer the Washington Commanders name and 58% prefer the Cleveland Guardians name
• Republicans overwhelmingly prefer the old names: 74% prefer the Washington Redskins name and 77% prefer the Cleveland Indians name

• Younger Americans and Americans with college degrees are more likely to prefer the new names, while older Americans and Americans without college degrees are more likely to prefer the old names
• These divides over age and education hold true even within political parties:
  • 18- to 44-year-old Democrats prefer the Guardians name to the Indians name, by a margin of 69% to 10%, while Democrats 45 and older prefer the Guardians name by a smaller margin of 48% to 33%
  • 18- to 44-year-old Republicans prefer the Indians name to the Guardians name by a margin of 66% to 19%, while Republicans 45 and older prefer the Indians name by a larger margin of 83% to 4%
• Views of the Washington, D.C., football team's name show an almost identical split

• Americans show a similar split when comparing within parties by education:
  • Preference for the Guardians name is higher among Democrats with college degrees (74% vs. 15%) than among Democrats without college degrees (49% vs. 27%)
  • Preference for the Guardians name is higher among Republicans with college degrees (16% vs. 75%) than among Republicans without college degrees (6% vs. 78%)
  • There are similar splits over the Washington, D.C. football team's name
• Opinion on these team names generally moves in lockstep: 40% of Americans prefer both the Indians and Redskins names, 30% prefer both the Guardians and the Commanders, and only 7% prefer either the Indians and Commanders names or the Guardians and Redskins names

— Carl Bialik contributed to this article

Throughout this report, some numbers may appear to be off by 1 because of rounding

See the toplines and crosstabs for the August 1 - 4, 2025 Economist/YouGov Poll

Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,702 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3.5%.

Image: Getty (Anna Moneymaker / Staff)

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