Congressional Approval at 11 Percent

Congress ranks dead last out of 16 institutions rated in a new Gallup poll — just 11 percent of Americans say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress, an all-time low.

That figure is down from 17 percent in 2009 and is one point lower than the previous low, recorded in 2008.

Gallup’s 2010 Confidence in Institutions survey found that half of Americans now say they have “very little” or “no” confidence in Congress, up from 38 percent last year and the highest for any institution since Gallup first asked this question in 1973.

The military is the highest-rated U.S. institution — 76 percent of those polled said they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the military — followed by small business (66 percent), the police (59), the church or organized religion (48), and the medical system (40).

Other poorly rated institutions include big business and HMOs, at 19 percent, and organized labor (20 percent).

The poll also found that only 36 percent of Americans have confidence in the presidency, down from 51 percent in June 2009 but higher than it was in 2008, the last year of George W. Bush’s presidency, when the figure was 26 percent.