Measuring the health of the American republic

Americans measure almost everything.We track inflation, unemployment, consumer confidence, stock prices, test scores, crime rates, election returns — even yards after catch. Every month brings another flood of government data intended to tell us how well the nation is doing at the moment.Yet for all the statistics we compile, one question is rarely asked: How healthy is the American experiment itself? To help answer that question, Advancing American Freedom has launched the Independence Index, an ongoing assessment of the nation’s progress across the three enduring principles proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.The index measures nearly 30 indicators — from marriage, educational choice, and religious participation, to tax burdens, volunteerism, suicide, addiction, and family formation. While other national assessments focus on narrower topics such as the economy, the Independence Index measures whether people are preserving the habits, beliefs, and institutions that make liberty itself possible.The founders did not establish the United States merely to create wealth or an efficient government. They founded a nation on a far more audacious proposition: that free men and women, endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, could successfully govern themselves.That experiment has always depended on much more than laws and elections. It requires people capable of exercising freedom wisely.Today, however, too many Americans mistake government for the source of national strength rather than one of its beneficiaries. We expect Washington to repair problems that originate much closer to home — in families, neighborhoods, congregations, schools, and civic organizations. Politics has become our first resort when it should be our last.If that diagnosis is correct, we should expect to see signs of cultural weakness extending well beyond our politics. Sadly, the Independence Index suggests exactly that.The U.S. Capitol is seen from a street in Washington as heavy smoke from wildfires shrouds the atmosphere, Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Today, the index finds encouraging progress in several measures of liberty, particularly lower tax burdens, increasing household net worth, and greater economic and school-choice freedom. But those gains are more than overshadowed by troubling declines across many key indicators of a healthy and flourishing society. The marriage rate is falling. Religious participation is declining. Homeownership is becoming less attainable for young families. Fertility remains below replacement. Suicide and abortion remain tragically high.These trends should concern everyone who hopes to pass on a flourishing republic. A free society cannot endure when the institutions that form responsible citizens continue to erode.Fortunately, the story is not entirely discouraging. The index also reminds us that the U.S.’s federal system remains one of our greatest strengths. Individual states continue to pursue different approaches, allowing successful policies and healthy civic cultures to emerge and serve as examples for the rest of the country. Some states consistently demonstrate that strong families, affordable communities, personal responsibility, and economic opportunity reinforce one another.The larger lesson, however, extends far beyond public policy.The government can protect the space in which families, churches, and civic organizations flourish. But it can never replace them. Those institutions remain the true schools of citizenship. They teach the habits of self-government long before the public casts a ballot or holds public office.As the U.S. begins its next 250 years, our greatest challenge is not simply preserving our Constitution, but preserving ourselves as a people capable of sustaining it.AMERICA AT 250: THE CIVIC RENEWAL PEOPLE WANTThe blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness endure only when people choose to live in a manner worthy of them.The Independence Index is offered in that spirit — not as a final verdict on the American experiment, but as a reminder that the future of the republic will ultimately be determined not by the size or strength of our government, but by the character of our people.J. Marc Wheat is general counsel for Advancing American Freedom (AAF), the conservative advocacy group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence. Kevin Dayaratna, Ph.D., is Vice President of the Institute for Statistical Policy Analysis at AAF.