Report Summary
This report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey – Climate Change in the American Mind – conducted jointly by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. Interview dates: April 17–26, 2026. Interviews: 1,068 adults (18+); average margin of error: +/- 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Climate Change in the American Mind is conducted jointly by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.
Principal Investigators:
Anthony Leiserowitz, PhD
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
John Kotcher, PhD
George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication
Seth Rosenthal, PhD
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
Edward Maibach, MPH, PhD
George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication
For all media and other inquiries, please email:
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication: Emily Richards (e.richards@yale.edu) and Eric Fine (eric.fine@yale.edu)
George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication: Cat Kutz (ckutz@gmu.edu)
Executive Summary
Drawing on a nationally representative survey (n = 1,068) conducted from April 17–26, 2026, this report describes Americans’1 beliefs and attitudes about global warming. Among the key findings in this report:
Global Warming Beliefs
- Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not by a ratio of more than 4 to 1 (68% versus 16%).
- By a 2 to 1 margin, more Americans think global warming is mostly human-caused (59%) than mostly caused by natural changes in the environment (27%).
- By more than a 2 to 1 margin, Americans are more likely to understand that most scientists think global warming is happening (54%) than to (erroneously) believe there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether it is happening (25%).
Perceived Risks of Global Warming
- 47% of Americans think people in the United States are being harmed by global warming “right now,” and 46% say they have personally experienced the effects of global warming.
- Majorities of Americans think global warming will harm plant and animal species (68%), future generations of people (68%), the world’s poor (64%), people in developing countries (62%), people in the United States (58%), the health of Americans (58%), and people in their community (51%). Many also think their family (49%), and they themselves (45%) will be harmed.
- 13% of Americans have considered moving to avoid the impacts of global warming.
Worry About Global Warming
- 66% of Americans say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming. This includes 29% who say they are “very worried.”
Harm from Extreme Weather Events or Related Impacts
- 59% of Americans think global warming is affecting weather in the United States, including 35% who think weather is being affected “a lot.”
- Majorities of Americans say they are worried their local area might be harmed by extreme weather events or related impacts including water pollution (79%), diseases carried by mosquitoes and ticks, such as Lyme disease and West Nile Virus (79%), electricity power outages (78%), air pollution (77%), extreme heat (77%), droughts (72%), water shortages (70%), wildfires (63%), and flooding (63%), and 45% are worried about hurricanes.
Personal and Social Engagement with Global Warming
- 65% of Americans say the issue of global warming is “extremely,” “very,” or “somewhat” important to them personally, while 35% say it is “not too” or “not at all” personally important.
- 39% of Americans say they hear about global warming in the media about once a month or more frequently. Fewer say they hear about global warming on social media once a month or more often (24%) or that they hear people they know talk about global warming once a month or more frequently (17%). These percentages have trended downward since their all-time highs in 2021 and 2022.
- A majority of Americans are interested in news stories about topics related to global warming, including: how global warming is affecting the cost of living (76%), actions being taken by the U.S. government in response to global warming (75%), the causes of global warming (74%), the impacts of global warming on their local community (74%), the impacts of global warming around the world (74%), actions that are being taken by businesses in response to global warming (74%), the impacts of global warming elsewhere in the United States (73%), actions being taken that make global warming worse (73%), actions being taken in their local community in response to global warming (72%), actions being taken by foreign governments in response to global warming (71%), actions being taken to oppose solutions to global warming (69%), and whether global warming is or is not happening (66%).
- 31% of Americans say they discuss global warming with family and friends “occasionally” (27%) or “often” (4%). In contrast, 69% say they “rarely” (34%) or “never” (35%) discuss it.
- 39% of Americans think it is at least “moderately” important to their family and friends that they take action to reduce global warming (an injunctive norm), and 33% say their family and friends make at least “a moderate amount of effort” to reduce global warming (a descriptive norm).
- 44% of Americans say they would like to hear from companies about efforts to reduce global warming “much more often” (24%) or “somewhat more often” (20%).
- 29% of Americans say they have rewarded companies that are taking steps to reduce global warming by buying their products at least “once” in the past 12 months and 26% say they have punished companies that are opposing steps to reduce global warming by not buying their products at least “once” in the past 12 months.
- 52% of Americans disagree that “new technologies can solve global warming without individuals having to make big changes in their lives,” while 48% agree.
How Americans Conceptualize Global Warming
Americans think global warming is a multifaceted issue, including a scientific (69%), agricultural (65%), severe weather (64%), health (61%), economic (60%), political (57%), humanitarian (56%), moral (43%), poverty (35%), social justice (33%), national security (32%), and/or religious (10%) issue.
1. Global Warming Beliefs
1.1 Most Americans think global warming is happening.
Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not by a ratio of more than 4 to 1.
About two-thirds of Americans (68%) think global warming is happening. By contrast, only 16% think global warming is not happening. Additionally, 16% say they don’t know if global warming is happening (refer to data tables, p. 28).
1.2 When Americans who “don’t know” if global warming is happening are asked for their best guess, more say “yes” than “no.”
Survey respondents who say they “don’t know” whether global warming is happening are then asked to provide their best guess as to whether or not global warming is happening. Over time, this follow-up question has produced a relatively stable pattern in which more of these Americans “lean” toward “yes” than “no” (refer to data tables, p. 29).
When the “leaners,” as determined by this follow-up question, are added to the totals of those who responded “yes” or “no” to the question reported in Section 1.1, we find that a total of 78% of Americans think global warming is happening or lean toward that position, while 22% think global warming is not happening or lean toward that position.
1.3 About half of Americans are “extremely” or “very” sure global warming is happening.
About half of Americans (49%) are either “extremely” (30%) or “very” (19%) sure global warming is happening (refer to data tables, p. 30). Far fewer (10%) are “extremely” (4%) or “very” (5%) sure global warming is not happening (refer to data tables, p. 31).
1.4 A majority of Americans think global warming is mostly human-caused.
A 2023 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which summarizes all of the world’s peer-reviewed scientific studies on climate change, concluded that “Human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming.”1
A majority of Americans (59%) understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. By contrast, 27% think it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment.
1.5 A majority of Americans understand that most scientists think global warming is happening.
A review by Cook and colleagues2 found that six independent, peer-reviewed studies examining the scientific consensus about global warming have concluded that between 90% and 100% of climate scientists are convinced human-caused global warming is happening. A more recent study found that as many as 98% of climate scientists are convinced global warming is happening and human-caused.3
A majority of Americans (54%) understand that most scientists think global warming is happening. By contrast, 25% think there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening. Very few Americans (2%) say most scientists think global warming is not happening, and 19% report that they don’t know enough to say (refer to data tables, pp. 33–34).
2. Perceived Risks of Global Warming
2.1 Many Americans say they have personally experienced the effects of global warming.
Many Americans (46%) agree with the statement “I have personally experienced the effects of global warming,” while about half (53%) disagree.
2.2 Many Americans think people in the U.S. are being harmed “right now” by global warming.
More than four in ten Americans (47%) think people in the U.S. are being harmed by global warming “right now.”
2.3 Many Americans think global warming will harm them, but more think others will be harmed.
A majority of Americans understand that global warming will cause harm. Half or more Americans think global warming will cause either “a great deal” or “a moderate amount” of harm to plant and animal species (68%), future generations of people (68%), the world’s poor (64%), people in developing countries (62%), people in the United States (58%), the health of Americans (58%), and people in their community (51%). Many Americans also think their family (49%), and they themselves (45%) will be harmed.
2.4 About one in eight Americans have considered moving to avoid the impacts of global warming.
Climate change is increasingly causing impacts that could lead people to consider relocating. These include rising sea levels,1 floods, wildfires, droughts, and extreme heat. We find that 13% of Americans have considered moving to avoid the impacts of global warming, while 77% have not, and 10% are not sure.
3. Worry About Global Warming
3.1 About two-thirds of Americans are worried about global warming.
About two-thirds of Americans (66%) say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming. This includes 29% who say they are “very worried.”
4. Personal and Social Engagement with Global Warming
4.1 Most Americans “rarely” or “never” discuss global warming with family and friends.
A majority of Americans (69%) say they either “rarely” (34%) or “never” (35%) discuss global warming with family and friends (refer to data tables, p. 48). In comparison, 31% say they discuss it either “occasionally” (27%) or “often” (4%). The last time the gap between these numbers was so large was 10 years ago (Spring 2016).
4.2 Fewer than half of Americans perceive social norms for taking action on global warming.
Social science research has shown that two types of social norms can have a powerful influence on people’s behavior: injunctive norms (the belief that friends and family expect you to behave in a given way) and descriptive norms (the belief that friends and family are themselves behaving in that way).1
More than one-third of Americans (39%) perceive an injunctive norm, saying it is either “extremely” (3%), “very” (10%), or “moderately” (25%) important to their family and friends that they take action to reduce global warming. Similarly, 33% perceive a descriptive norm, saying their family and friends make either “a great deal of effort” (2%), “a lot of effort” (5%), or “a moderate amount of effort” (26%) to reduce global warming.
4.3 Relatively few Americans hear about global warming in the media at least once a month; even fewer hear about it on social media or hear people they know talking about it.
Relatively few Americans (39%) say they hear about global warming in the media once a month or more often, while 49% say they hear about global warming in the media several times a year or less often, including 11% who say they never hear about it.
Additionally, only 24% of Americans say they hear about global warming on social media once a month or more often, while 58% say they do so several times a year or less often, including 26% who say they never hear about global warming on social media. Similarly, only 17% of Americans say they hear people they know talk about global warming once a month or more often, while 75% say they do so several times a year or less often, including 33% who say they never hear people they know talk about global warming.
As noted above, relatively few Americans hear about global warming at least once a month in the media, on social media, or from people they know. In addition, there have been overall downward trends in these percentages since their all-time highs in 2021 and 2022.2 This includes an 18-point decrease in the percentage of Americans who hear about global warming in the media at least once a month (from 57% to 39%) and an eight-point decrease in the percentage who hear people they know talk about global warming at least once a month (from 25% to 17%).
4.4 A majority of Americans are interested in news stories about topics related to global warming.
A majority of Americans are at least “a little” interested in news stories about issues related to global warming. This includes stories about how global warming is affecting the cost of living (76%), actions being taken by the U.S. government in response to global warming (75%), the causes of global warming (74%), the impacts of global warming on their local community (74%), the impacts of global warming around the world (74%), actions that are being taken by businesses in response to global warming (74%), the impacts of global warming elsewhere in the United States (73%), actions being taken that make global warming worse (73%), actions being taken in their local community in response to global warming (72%), actions being taken by foreign governments in response to global warming (71%), actions being taken to oppose solutions to global warming (69%), and whether global warming is or is not happening (66%).
4.5 Many Americans would like to hear more from companies about efforts to reduce global warming.
Many Americans (44%) say they would like to hear from companies about efforts to reduce global warming either “much more often” (24%) or “somewhat more often” (20%), and an additional 20% say they would like to hear about efforts to reduce global warming “about the same as [they] do now.” Fewer (16%) say they would like to hear from companies about global warming “much less” (11%) or “somewhat less” often (4%), and 20% say it doesn’t matter.
4.6 A majority of Americans say the issue of global warming is personally important to them.
A majority of Americans (65%) say the issue of global warming is either “extremely” (14%), “very” (21%), or “somewhat” (30%) important to them personally (refer to data tables, p. 6).
Fewer Americans (35%) say global warming is either “not too” (15%) or “not at all” (19%) personally important.
4.7 About three in ten Americans say they have engaged in consumer activism on global warming.
About three in ten Americans (29%) say that at least “once” over the past 12 months, they have rewarded companies that are taking steps to reduce global warming by buying their products. About one-quarter (26%) say that at least “once” over the past 12 months, they have punished companies that are opposing steps to reduce global warming by not buying their products.
5. Impacts of Global Warming
5.1 A majority of Americans think global warming is affecting weather in the United States.
A majority of Americans (59%) think global warming is affecting weather in the United States, including many who think global warming is affecting U.S. weather either “a lot” (35%) or “some” (18%).
As noted above, about one-third of Americans (35%) think global warming is affecting weather “a lot,” which is about the average percentage over the past four years.
5.2 A majority of Americans are worried about harm from extreme weather events or related impacts in their local area.
More than half of Americans are at least “a little worried” their local area might be harmed by water pollution (79%), diseases carried by mosquitoes and ticks, such as Lyme disease and West Nile Virus (79%), electricity power outages (78%), air pollution (77%), extreme heat (77%), droughts (72%), water shortages (70%), wildfires (63%), and/or flooding (63%). Forty-five percent of Americans are at least “a little worried” that hurricanes will harm their local area.
6. Global Warming and Personal Agency
6.1 About half of Americans do not think new technologies can solve global warming without individual action.
More than half of Americans (52%) either “strongly” (20%) or “somewhat” (32%) disagree with the statement “new technologies can solve global warming without individuals having to make big changes in their lives” (refer to data tables, p. 82), while 48% either “strongly” (9%) or “somewhat” (39%) agree with this statement.
7. How Americans Conceptualize Global Warming
7.1 Americans are most likely to think of global warming as an environmental, scientific, agricultural, or severe weather issue.
Global warming is a complex challenge with many dimensions. Understanding how people conceptualize the issue is critical to formulating effective communication strategies.
A large majority of Americans think global warming is an environmental issue (76%). More than half think global warming is a scientific (69%), agricultural (65%), severe weather (64%), health (61%), economic (60%), political (57%), and/or humanitarian (56%) issue.
Fewer think global warming is a moral (43%), poverty (35%), social justice (33%), national security (32%), and/or religious (10%) issue.
Appendix I: Data Tables
Data Tables can be found beginning on p. 28 of the PDF version of the report:
Appendix II: Survey Method
The data in this report are based on a nationally representative survey of 1,068 American adults, aged 18 and older. The survey was conducted April 17–26, 2026. All questionnaires were self-administered by respondents in a web-based environment. The median completion time for the survey was 23 minutes.
The sample was drawn from the Ipsos KnowledgePanel®, an online panel of members drawn using probability sampling methods. Prospective members are recruited using a combination of random digit dial and address-based sampling techniques that cover virtually all (non-institutional) resident phone numbers and addresses in the United States. Those contacted who would choose to join the panel but do not have access to the Internet are loaned computers and provided Internet access so they may participate.
The sample therefore includes a representative cross-section of American adults – irrespective of whether they have Internet access, use only a cell phone, etc. Key demographic variables were weighted, post survey, to match US Census Bureau norms.
From November 2008 to December 2018, no KnowledgePanel® member participated in more than one Climate Change in the American Mind (CCAM) survey. Beginning with the April 2019 survey, panel members who have participated in CCAM surveys in the past, excluding the most recent two surveys, may be randomly selected for participation. In the current survey, 298 respondents participated in a previous CCAM survey.
The survey instrument was designed by Anthony Leiserowitz, Seth Rosenthal, Jennifer Carman, Marija Verner, Emily Richards, Matthew Goldberg, and Jennifer Marlon of Yale University, and John Kotcher, Edward Maibach, Teresa Myers, Joshua Ettinger, and Julia Fine of George Mason University. The figures and tables were constructed by Emily Goddard of Yale University.
Sample details and margins of error
All samples are subject to some degree of sampling error – that is, statistical results obtained from a sample can be expected to differ somewhat from results that would be obtained if every member of the target population were interviewed. Average margins of error for each wave of CCAM, at the 95% confidence level, are plus or minus 3 percentage points except where noted.
- April 2026: Fielded April 17–26 (n = 1,068)
- November 2025: Fielded November 4–16 (n = 1,146)
- May 2025: Fielded May 1–12 (n = 1,040)
- December 2024: Fielded December 11–22 (n = 1,013)
- April 2024: Fielded April 25 – May 4 (n = 1,031)
- October 2023: Fielded October 20–26 (n = 1,033)
- April 2023: Fielded April 18 – May 1 (n = 1,011)
- December 2022: Fielded December 2–12 (n = 1,085)
- April 2022: Fielded April 13 – May 2 (n = 1,018)
- September 2021: Fielded September 10–20 (n = 1,006)
- March 2021: Fielded March 18–29 (n = 1,037)
- December 2020: Fielded December 3–16 (n = 1,036)
- April 2020: Fielded April 7–17 (n = 1,029)
- November 2019: Fielded November 8–20 (n = 1,303)
- April 2019: Fielded March 29 – April 8 (n = 1,291)
- December 2018: Fielded November 28 – December 11 (n = 1,114)
- March 2018: Fielded March 7–24 (n = 1,278)
- October 2017: Fielded October 20 – November 1 (n = 1,304)
- May 2017: Fielded May 18 – June 6 (n = 1,266)
- November 2016: Fielded November 18 – December 1 (n = 1,226)
- March 2016: Fielded March 18–31 (n = 1,204)
- October 2015: Fielded September 30 – October 19 (n = 1,330)
- March 2015: Fielded February 27 – March 10 (n = 1,263)
- October 2014: Fielded October 17–28 (n = 1,275)
- April 2014: Fielded April 15–22 (n = 1,013)
- November 2013: Fielded November 23 – December 9 (n = 830)
- April 2013: Fielded April 10–15 (n = 1,045)
- September 2012: Fielded August 31 – September 12 (n = 1,061)
- March 2012: Fielded March 12–30 (n = 1,008)
- November 2011: Fielded October 20 – November 16 (n = 1,000)
- May 2011: Fielded April 23 – May 12 (n = 1,010)
- June 2010: Fielded May 14 – June 1 (n = 1,024)
- January 2010: Fielded December 24, 2009 – January 3, 2010 (n = 1,001).
- November 2008: Fielded October 7 – November 12 (n = 2,164).
- Data were collected over two periods: from October 7–20 and from October 24 – November 12. Margin of error plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Rounding error and tabulation
In data tables, bases specified are unweighted, while percentages are weighted to match national population parameters.
For tabulation purposes, percentage points are rounded to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given figure or table may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. Summed response categories (e.g., “strongly agree” + “somewhat agree”) are rounded after sums are calculated. For example, in some cases, the sum of 25% + 25% might be reported as 51% (e.g., 25.3% + 25.3% = 50.6%, which after rounding would be reported as 25% + 25% = 51%).
Appendix III: Sample Demographics
Sample demographics can be found on p. 98 of the PDF version of the report:
Citation
Leiserowitz, A., Kotcher, J., Rosenthal, S., Goddard, E., Carman, J., Verner, M., Myers, T., Ettinger, J., Fine, J., Richards, E., Goldberg, M., Marlon, J., & Maibach, E. (2026). Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes, Spring 2026. Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
Funding Sources
The research was funded by the Schmidt Family Foundation, the U.S. Energy Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, King Philanthropies, the Grantham Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation.