Pope Leo XIV is viewed most positively out of 14 public figures from around the world, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and French President Emmanuel Macron, a new Gallup poll of Americans found.

According to Gallup, 57% of Americans have favorable opinions of Pope Leo, with just 11% saying they have unfavorable views and 31% saying they do not know enough to have an opinion of him or have never heard of him. Gallup noted that Pope Leo’s net favorability score (46 percentage points) is significantly higher than other leaders’ net favorability, with the next most popular public figure, Zelenskyy, garnering a net positive total of 18 points.

Gallup also reported that Americans’ ratings of Pope Leo are consistent with the ratings Pope Francis and Pope Benedict received during the first months of their papacies. When Pope Benedict became pope in 2005, 55% rated him favorably and 12% unfavorably. In 2013, 58% had positive views of Pope Francis and 10% held negative views.

“All three pontiffs also earned higher-than-average support from American Catholics in their initial ratings, with Leo viewed favorably by 76%, Francis by 80% and Benedict by 67%,” Gallup noted.

Liberals are more likely to support Pope Leo compared with conservatives (65% vs. 46%), which was not the case at the beginning of Pope Francis and Pope Benedict’s papacies. Conservatives consistently viewed Pope Benedict more favorably than liberals did, while Pope Francis’ initial support from conservatives declined throughout his papacy. The last time Gallup measured Pope Francis’ favorability before his death in April was in 2023, when 70% of liberals and 42% of conservatives said they had favorable views of him.

Gallup noted that it did not measure Americans’ views of Pope St. John Paul II when he became pope in 1978 but began tracking his popularity in 1993. His final rating in 2005 showed 78% of Americans holding positive views, with 81% of conservatives and 64% of liberals supporting him.

Gallup also found that Pope Leo was the only public figure measured in this year’s poll to receive net favorable ratings from all political parties, reporting that his “broad appeal in the U.S.” distinguishes him from more polarizing leaders. 

"Although liked by all party groups, he gets better ratings from Democrats and liberals than Republicans and conservatives," Gallup stated. "Given the similarity to Francis’ image in his later years, this could indicate that Americans perceive Leo to be continuing Francis’ approach to religious and social questions, or that they are assuming that’s the case until shown otherwise.”