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Who has power in the U.S. — and what does it mean to be powerful?

That's the subject of a recent YouGov survey, which asked Americans about the power wielded by 40 groups in society. The poll included political groups such as liberals and conservatives, demographic groups such as young adults, Black Americans, and rural dwellers, as well as professional or economic groups such as scientists, Hollywood executives, and workers.

For each group, we first asked Americans to rate how much power that group collectively has in the U.S. Because the power to change the law is not necessarily the same thing as the power to create and destroy jobs or the power to make a new cultural sensation, we asked separately about each group's political power, economic power, and cultural power.

Of the 40 groups, the one Americans are most likely to say is powerful is billionaires. 81% of Americans say billionaires have a lot of economic power, 75% say they have a lot of political power, and 51% say they have a lot of cultural power. Those are the highest figures among the 40 groups for each of the three kinds of power.

Some groups are most likely to be perceived as having lots of economic power rather than other kinds of power. For example, 51% of Americans say bankers have lots of economic power, more than the 35% who say bankers have a lot of political power and the 17% who say they have a lot of cultural power.

Other groups are more likely to be seen as having a lot of cultural power than political or economic power — including Hollywood executives, Black Americans, and young adults. Meanwhile, groups including lawyers and gun owners are disproportionately likely to be thought of as having political power.

Respondents could say each group had "a lot of power," "some power," "not much power," or "no power at all." For example, 20% of Americans say young adults have a lot of cultural power, while 37% say they have some cultural power, 24% say they don't have much cultural power, and 11% say they have no cultural power at all.

Here is how Americans rate the power of four selected groups:

In their assessment of the power of some groups, Americans are divided by their political ideology. For example, 42% of conservatives say immigrants have some political power (27%) or a lot of political power (15%), more than the 17% of moderates or 14% of liberals who say immigrants have that much political power. There are much smaller differences by political ideology in assessments of the economic and cultural power of immigrants.

YouGov also asked Americans whether they thought each group should have more or less power than they currently have now. The groups Americans are most likely to say should have more power are workers (64%), small-business owners (54%), and women (51%).

The groups Americans are most likely to say should have less power are billionaires (62%), Hollywood executives (56%), and CEOs (55%).

America's political divide can be seen in which groups Democrats and Republicans want to have more power. For each of the 40 groups in the survey, we calculated the difference between the share who say that group should have more power and the share who say it should have less power. Democrats are more inclined than Republicans to more rather than less power for groups including Muslim Americans (+22 for Democrats vs. -54 for Republicans), feminists (+45 vs. -41), public-school teachers (+63 vs. -10), and journalists (+32 vs. -44). Meanwhile, Republicans are more favorable than Democrats toward more rather than less power for groups including Christian Americans (+38 for Republicans vs. -20 for Democrats), white Americans (+27 vs. -34), police officers (+26 vs. -27) and gun owners (+13 vs. -60).

For some groups, there is little or no difference in how much power Democrats and Republicans want them to have. This includes groups that both Democrats and Republicans are more likely to want to have less power than more — Hollywood executives, bankers, and tech executives — as well as groups that both are more likely to want to have more power than less: rural dwellers, homeowners, and small-business owners.

See the full results of this survey

Methodology: The May 14 - 22, 2026 poll was conducted among 2,170 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, U.S. region, 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, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.

Image: Getty

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