About the State of the Nation Project

The State of the Nation Project tackles one of the most pressing questions of our time: How are we doing as a country? With rising polarization, misinformation, pessimism, and distrust descending on us, we conceived the project to identify the challenges we face and recognize progress.

A Broad Partnership of Experts and the American People

The State of the Nation Project brings together a diverse group of thought leaders—from across the political spectrum. We are leaders in seven of the nation’s leading think tanks and senior officials and advisors to the past five Presidential administrations, Democrats and Republicans.

We also went further by engaging approximately 1,000 Americans—also from across the country and political spectrum—to get their views on the best indicators of our progress. While there are some differences, the broad conclusions from the data are very similar, whether we focus on the board’s or the public’s views.

We were not sure how much agreement existed when we started. In this way, the project was an experiment and one that has been a success. This really is America’s Progress Report.

Rising above the Noise

We are bombarded every day with headlines—mostly negative—so it is easy to get overwhelmed by the multitude of challenges we face. The State of the Nation Project aim is to cut through this noise and focus attention on the critical issues that matter most.

A Mission of Progress

As a representative democracy, we can only make progress to solve our problems if we can come to agreement—if we are somewhat unified in our direction. The fact that such a wide-ranging group could agree on so much is remarkable and suggests that there is more agreement in our country than the media and other public conversations suggest. This means we have more opportunities for progress than the media and political conversations suggest. While we cannot measure our way to success, we do need a compass. That is what the State of the Nation Project is all about.