Americans trust their churches more than the Presidency, Congress, the Supreme Court or the media, according to a new Gallup poll.

The poll, released last week, showed that out of 16 major institutions, organised religion ranked fourth, with 48 per cent of people saying they trusted it “a great deal or a lot”.

A further 30 per cent said they placed “some” trust in the churches, while 20 per cent said they had “very little” trust in institutionalised religion.

The military received the highest levels of trust, with 76 per cent of people saying they trusted it “a great deal or a lot”, with a further 18 per cent placing some trust in it.

Sixty six per cent of people place high levels of trust in small businesses, with 59 per cent of the public expressing “a great deal” of trust in the police.

By contrast, US Congress, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate, received historically low levels of trust. Fifty per cent had “very little, or no” trust in Congress, while only 11 per cent had “a great deal” of trust in the institution, its lowest ever level.

Its previous lowest level was 14 per cent, which received in 2008. Last year, 17 per cent of people expressed a high level of trust in Congress.

According to the poll, only 36 per cent of people expressed a high level of trust in the presidency, with 26 per cent expressing some trust. Thirty seven per cent of people expressed no confidence in this institution.

Thirty six per cent also expressed “a great deal, or a lot” of trust in the Supreme Court. However, a greater number of people, 43 per cent, expressed “some” trust, while only 18 per cent expressed no trust in America’s highest court.

In terms of the media, only 22 per cent of people expressed “a great deal or a lot” of trust in television news. The comparable figure for newspapers was 25 per cent. Thirty three per cent of people have no trust in newspapers, while 36 per cent of people express no trust in television news.