Just over a month after his election, Pope Leo XIV is enjoying positive reviews from most of the nation’s Catholics, according to a new poll.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago surveyed 1,158 U.S. adults June 5-9 via telephone and web questionnaires administered in both English and Spanish, with participants receiving “a small monetary incentive” for completing the survey, according to the researchers.
Sixty-five percent of U.S. Catholics regard the new pope “very” or “somewhat” favorably, with 29 percent responding they didn’t know enough to form an opinion, and 6 percent reporting an unfavorable opinion.
In contrast, an AP-NORC poll conducted in October 2015 among 1,058 adults showed that 59 percent of U.S. Catholics approved of Pope Francis, with 26 percent not having enough information to say and 15 percent disapproving of him. That survey took place more than two years after Pope Francis’ March 2013 election.
Both in the 2015 poll and the 2025 poll, 44 percent of U.S. adults reported favorable views of the current pope. Another 46 percent said in the 2025 poll that they didn’t know enough to say about Pope Leo, while in 2015, 42 percent indicated the same about Pope Francis. In the 2025 poll, 10 percent of the nation’s adults said they disapproved of Pope Leo, while 13 percent said the same of Pope Francis in 2015.
Along political party lines, roughly half of U.S. Democrats view Pope Leo favorably, along with some 4 in 10 Republicans and independents. At the same time, Republicans appeared to be slightly more cautious than Democrats to express an opinion, with about half saying they didn’t have sufficient knowledge to weigh in, a view held by 4 in 10 Democrats.
Both sides were equally likely to have an unfavorable opinion of Pope Leo.
AP reported that the poll “found no discernible partisan gap among Catholics on Pope Leo, and Catholics across the ideological spectrum have expressed hope that Leo will be able to heal some of the divisions that emerged during the pontificate of his predecessor, Pope Francis.”
Members of other religious groups “are more likely to still be making up their minds” about Pope Leo, according to AP.
Specifically, about half of born-again (also known as evangelical) Protestants, mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated deferred on an opinion of Pope Leo, with 1 in 10 having an unfavorable view of him, according to AP-NORC.
Approximately half of the nation’s adults aged 60 and older approve of Pope Leo, while 4 in 10 of those under 30 regard him favorably, and only 1 in 10 of those under 30 disapproving.
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