A new American opinion poll suggests that Pope Leo XIV currently enjoys one of the strongest public reputations among prominent figures in the United States, outperforming political leaders across the partisan divide.
The survey, conducted by NBC News in partnership with Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies, asked 1,000 registered voters about their views on a range of public figures. When respondents were asked how they regarded Pope Leo, 42 per cent said they held either a “very positive” or “somewhat positive” opinion of him, while only 8 per cent reported a negative view.
The result leaves the Pope with a net favourability rating of 34 percentage points, placing him ahead of a list of well-known American personalities who were also included in the survey.
Among them were the comedian Stephen Colbert, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, President Donald Trump, former vice president Kamala Harris and California governor Gavin Newsom.
Although the Pope’s overall positive score narrowly surpassed that of President Trump by a single percentage point, his negative rating was markedly lower than that of any of the other figures tested. Leo was the only personality in the survey whose unfavourable score remained in single digits.
The poll also revealed a significant proportion of voters who expressed no firm view of the pontiff. Thirty-six per cent said they felt neutral about him, while a further 14 per cent said they did not know enough to offer an opinion. The survey’s margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The findings come less than a year after the election of Pope Leo XIV, who was born on the South Side of Chicago and became the first pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church to hold United States citizenship.
In addition to his American nationality, he also holds Peruvian citizenship and spent many years in pastoral and missionary work in Latin America before his elevation to the papacy. A member of the Order of St Augustine, he is likewise the first Augustinian to occupy the Chair of St Peter in modern times.
Comparisons with earlier pontiffs suggest that Leo’s standing among the American public lies between that enjoyed by recent predecessors. The same poll recorded a peak positive rating of 57 per cent for Pope Francis in late 2013 during the early months of his papacy. By contrast, Pope Benedict XVI registered a positive rating of around 30 per cent shortly before his resignation in 2013.
Further back, polling conducted during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II showed an even stronger level of public approval. In January 1998 the Polish pope recorded a positive rating of 65 per cent among American respondents, reflecting the immense global popularity he enjoyed during the later decades of his long pontificate.
Furthermore, the favourable perception of Pope Leo XIV is not confined to the United States. International polling suggests that the pontiff currently enjoys a rare degree of goodwill across a wide range of countries. According to the annual End of Year Survey produced by Gallup International, Pope Leo stands out as the only contemporary global leader to register a positive net reputation worldwide, an unusual distinction at a time when public trust in political leadership is widely seen to be fragmented.
The study, conducted between October and December 2025, gathered responses from 64,097 adults across 61 countries and offers a snapshot of international attitudes towards prominent figures. It found that 49 per cent of respondents expressed a favourable opinion of Pope Leo, while 25 per cent viewed him unfavourably and 26 per cent said they were undecided, leaving the pontiff with a net favourability score of +24. The figures also indicate a broad geographical reach to his popularity, with the survey recording a positive overall image for the Pope in 51 of the 61 countries included in the research.
