Public Sentiment

Polls, opposition and industry response · Flagship: Pew's data center survey

Most Americans now say they would not want a data center nearby. Opposition ran 71-75% in Gallup and Heatmap polls in 2026, up from about even in Heatmap's poll a year earlier, and concern about AI and jobs is rising in both parties, while China remains among the most optimistic countries about AI.

US opposition to a data center near home in Heatmap polls rose from 42% in August 2025 to 51% in February 2026, about 70% in May and 75% in August 2026; and in the Ipsos AI Monitor 2026, the share saying AI has more benefits than drawbacks ranges from 85% in China to 38% in the US and 34% in Canada OPPOSE A DATA CENTER NEAR HOME (HEATMAP, US VOTERS) 40% 60% 80% 42%Aug 2025 51%Feb 2026 70%May 2026 75%Aug 2026 AI HAS MORE BENEFITS THAN DRAWBACKS (IPSOS, 2026) China85% Indonesia77% Japan50% United States38% Great Britain38% Germany37% Canada34%
Oppose nearby
71-75%
More concerned
52%
Expect fewer jobs
71%
Local groups
843
Hub
Society

What it is

How the Public Sees AI and Data Centers

Public opinion on AI in the US has turned more negative since 2021, and opinion on data centers turned sharply in 2026 as awareness of them rose.

  • Data centers: Gallup and Heatmap put opposition to a data center near home at 71-75% in 2026, and 60% told Pew they would be uncomfortable with one. Gallup found more opposition to a nearby data center than to a nearby nuclear plant.
  • Across parties: Democrats oppose more strongly, and Republican opposition is rising. In Pew's polling, the share of Republicans who say data centers hurt quality of life nearby rose from 24% to 42% in six months.
  • Jobs: 71% of Americans expect AI to mean fewer jobs. Stanford researchers found early-career employment falling in the most AI-exposed occupations, and employers cited AI in about a quarter of 2026 job cuts. Whether AI caused those cuts is disputed.
  • Organized opposition: more than 800 local groups, dozens of ballot measures, bills from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and from Sens. Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal, copyright suits and small street protests against the AI race.
  • Industry response: pledges to pay full power and property costs, community funds and advertising. Builders argue data centers bring tax revenue and construction jobs, and that local opposition rests partly on missing information about closed-loop cooling and on-site power.
  • Abroad: people in China, Indonesia and Thailand are far more optimistic about AI than people in the US, Britain or Canada. Ipsos notes its China sample skews urban and online.

Flagship

Pew: Views of Data Centers Turned in Six Months

  • Survey: 10,548 US adults, July-August 2026, compared with the same questions in January 2026.
  • Awareness: the share who had heard "a lot" about data centers rose from 25% to 35%.
  • Effects: "mostly bad" for the environment rose from 39% to 54%, for home energy costs from 38% to 50% and for quality of life nearby from 30% to 49%. Only about 4% said "mostly good" on each.
  • Jobs and taxes: views were split; about a quarter said mostly good and a quarter mostly bad for local jobs and tax revenue.
  • Comfort: 60% would not be comfortable with a new data center in their area: 54% of Republicans and 68% of Democrats.

Polls and responses

Polls, Movements and Responses

Public sentiment on AI and data centers
SourceFindingDate
Pew Research, data centersEnvironment "mostly bad" 54%, home energy costs 50%, quality of life nearby 49%; 60% uncomfortable with one nearbySeptember 2026
Gallup71% oppose an AI data center in their area, against 53% for a nuclear plantMay 2026
AP-NORC and UChicago EPIC84% concerned about data centers' effect on electricity prices; 73% want them to pay for grid upgradesSeptember 2026
Pew Research, AI overall52% more concerned than excited, up from 37% in 2021; 71% expect fewer jobsAugust 2026
Stanford Digital Economy LabEmployment of 22- to 25-year-olds in the most AI-exposed jobs down 13% relative to othersAugust 2025
Challenger, Gray and Christmas112,713 job cuts in 2026 where employers cited AI, about 24% of all cutsThrough July 2026
Data Center Watch843 local opposition groups in 49 states; $68B of projects blocked or delayed in one quarterQ2 2026
Local ballot measures38 data center measures in eight states; Ohio has 20 (Ballotpedia)2026
Sanders and Ocasio-CortezArtificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium ActMarch 2026
Hawley and BlumenthalGRID Act: new data centers generate their own power; households get first claim on the gridFebruary 2026
Florida SB 484Data centers pay their own utility costs; local land-use control keptMay 2026
Bartz v. Anthropic$1.5B copyright settlement, about $3,000 per bookJuly 2026
Industry responseMicrosoft Community-First pledges; Meta $1B community fund; trade-group state ad campaigns2026
Ipsos AI MonitorMore benefits than drawbacks: China 85%, US 38%, 32-country average 55%June 2026

Record

Dataset Record

Dataset
US and international polling on AI and data centers, opposition movements and industry responses
Sources
Pew Research Center, Gallup, Heatmap and Embold Research, AP-NORC and UChicago EPIC, Ipsos AI Monitor, Stanford Digital Economy Lab, Challenger Gray and Christmas, Data Center Watch, Bloomberg, Ballotpedia, US Senate, DatacenterDynamics, Florida Phoenix, Jurist, Axios, The Next Web
Last verified
October 2026