After dipping to 40% in 2020, the percentage of Americans describing moral values in the U.S. as "poor" has returned to 47%, matching the 2019 reading and similar to perceptions since 2017. Longer-term, belief that the nation's moral values are poor has increased from a low of 35% in 2003. Meanwhile, fewer have described morals as only fair, and the percentages rating them as excellent or good have remained consistently low. Over the past two decades, a large majority of Americans have repeatedly said that the state of the nation's moral values is getting worse rather than better. Today, 67% are pessimistic about how values are changing, similar to the 68% found in 2020. However, Americans were significantly more likely to say values were getting worse in most years from 2004 to 2019, including a high of 82% in 2007.