Opposition to local data centers rises sharply, Annenberg survey finds

3 in 5 Americans oppose data centers, though broader views of AI hold steady.

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As protesters rally against data center construction in dozens of states and New York and Texas pause the issuance of permits for large data centers, a new nationally representative survey finds that Americans' opposition to data centers in their communities has risen sharply since last spring.

The survey, conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania, finds that about 3 in 5 U.S. adults (61%) oppose the construction of new data centers in their area, up 12 percentage points from an APPC survey in February and March.

Americans' broader views of artificial intelligence (AI), however, have remained stable. The share saying that AI's impact on the United States over the next 10 years will be somewhat or very negative was 39%, statistically unchanged from the spring. Two-thirds (68%) continue to say the government has done "too little" to regulate AI, unchanged from the spring.

The movement over these four months was concentrated in one place: what Americans think about the physical infrastructure of a data center being built near their home.

Read the full news release here.

Key findings

The survey, by the Annenberg Public Policy Center's Institutions of Democracy division, was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 1,320 U.S. adult citizens from June 16-July 19, 2026. It finds that:

• Opposition to local data centers rose 12 points over four months: Three in five Americans (61%) now somewhat or strongly oppose the construction of new data centers in their area, up from 49% in the survey ending in March. Only 14% are supportive, down from 21% in the spring.
  
  
• Opposition crosses party lines and is highest among younger adults: Majorities of Democrats (69%), Republicans (54%) and independents (53%) oppose new local data centers. Opposition is highest among young adults under 30 (70%) and declines to 57% among those 65 and older, the inverse of what one might expect for a new technology.
   
• Views of AI overall, and demand for regulation, have held steady: 39% expect AI's impact on the United States to be negative over the next decade, against 18% who expect it to be positive, unchanged from the spring. Over two-thirds (68%) say the government has done "too little" to regulate AI, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents.
   
• Medical research remains the one area where Americans expect AI to help: Across 13 areas, only medical research and discoveries draws a net-positive assessment (+41 points) in which the anticipated benefits of AI outweigh the expected negatives. The most negative areas are personal privacy and data security (-63 points), children's safety online (-50 points), and employment and jobs (-46 points).
  
  
• People who use AI are less negative about it – but not about data centers. Among those who report "never" using AI in the past month, 54% expect AI's impact on the United States to be negative. That falls to 40% among light users and 29% among those who used AI many times or almost every day. But opposition to local data centers is essentially flat across different usage groups.

"The people who use AI the most are the most optimistic about what it will do for the country, and that has been consistent across our surveys," said University of Pennsylvania political science professor Matt Levendusky, the Stephen and Mary Baran Chair in the Institutions of Democracy at APPC. "That optimism, however, has clear limits, and it disappears when we ask about privacy, about jobs, and about whether a data center should go up nearby. Even heavy AI users seem to be concerned about these very concrete worries."

The Annenberg Public Policy Center's Institutions of Democracy survey was conducted for APPC by SSRS, an independent research company, primarily online, with a small sample of phone respondents. Respondents were weighted to align with population benchmarks. The margin of error for the full sample is ±3.5 percentage points, and it is larger for subgroups.

For additional data and details, read the full news release, the topline and the survey methodology.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania was established in 1993 to educate the public and policy makers about communication's role in advancing public understanding of political, science, and health issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

Contact: Michael Rozansky | [email protected] | 215.746.0202

SOURCE Annenberg Public Policy Center