A majority of Americans want Canada and Greenland to remain independent and autonomous, according to a new public opinion poll.
The online survey of 1,002 U.S. adults was conducted between Jan. 13 and 15. It found that 66 per cent of respondents want Canada to remain an independent nation while 56 per cent would like Greenland to keep its status as an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Only 17 per cent of respondents said they want Canada to be a U.S. territory or state. That number climbed slightly to 23 per cent of respondents who want Greenland to become a U.S. territory or state.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been aggressively pursuing an expansionist agenda during his second term.
Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to turn Canada into the U.S.’s “cherished” 51st state. Citing national security, Trump has also set his sights on annexing Greenland.
Canada, Denmark and the U.S. are all allies under the NATO security alliance. Both Canada and Denmark have pushed back against Trump’s expansionist ambitions.
The survey was conducted by Research Co., a Vancouver-based public opinion firm.
“We were curious to see how Americans felt about the expansionist push that their president has initiated,” Research Co. president Mario Canseco told CTVNews.ca. “There is really no group that is clamouring to make the countries and territories that we asked about either U.S. territories or American states.”
The survey also asked respondents about their opinions on the sovereignty of Cuba, Panama, Mexico and Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory. A majority of respondents supported Cuba, Panama and Mexico’s independence. When it comes to Puerto Rico, 43 per cent wanted to preserve the status quo while 24 per cent said it should gain independence and 17 per cent thought it should become a U.S. state.
According to the survey, Trump supporters were somewhat more likely to support the administration’s expansionist agenda, with 36 per cent saying they want Greenland to become a U.S. state or territory.
“The level of support for a change in the status quo tends to be higher among Republicans, particularly on Greenland,” Canseco explained. “But we do not see majorities of Americans who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 thinking this is the moment to take over some of these areas.”
Trump’s expansionist ambitions align with his administration’s U.S. National Security Strategy. Released in late 2025, the document explains that the U.S. is seeking “to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere.”
The data from the survey was statistically weighted based on U.S. census figures for age, gender and region. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
