More than half of Americans don’t know what Memorial Day is

Over half of Americans don’t know what Memorial Day is, according to new research.

The shocking data was revealed in a new survey of 2,000 Americans, which found that only 48% of respondents knew that Memorial Day is a holiday honoring military personnel who died in service to their country.

Thirty-five percent of the panelists incorrectly thought Memorial Day was a holiday celebrating all military personnel, both living and deceased. This, of course, is actually Veterans Day.

Interestingly, one in twenty (5%) wrongly thought it was a holiday commemorating all public servants, military or not, who lost their lives while working.

When splitting out the results of the data by generation, there seems to be a divide amongst age groups.

Older generations, by and large, were far more likely to know the exact definition of Memorial Day when compared to younger Americans.

Only 27% of Gen Z respondents selected the correct definition, as well as just 38% of millennials.

Baby boomers were most on top of it, with 56% knowing precisely why Memorial Day was observed.

But just because you don’t know exactly what Memorial Day is, doesn’t mean you have to work on the unofficial start of summer.

Of employed survey respondents, 65% have the day off from their job, while 35% will still be heading into work.

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Why do we observe Memorial Day?

• To honor military personnel who died in service to their country.                                       48%
• To honor all military veterans, both living and deceased                                                     35%
• To remember all public servants who lost their lives while working.                                     5%
• To commemorate the Founding Fathers and their role in American independence.            3%
• To honor past presidents who served in the military.                                                            2%

Survey methodology:

Talker Research surveyed 2,000 Americans; the survey was administered and conducted online by Talker Research between May 9 and May 15, 2025.

We are sourcing from a non-probability frame and the two main sources we use are:

• Traditional online access panels — where respondents opt-in to take part in online market research for an incentive
• Programmatic — where respondents are online and are given the option to take part in a survey to receive a virtual incentive usually related to the online activity they are engaging in

Those who did not fit the specified sample were terminated from the survey. As the survey is fielded, dynamic online sampling is used, adjusting targeting to achieve the quotas specified as part of the sampling plan.

Regardless of which sources a respondent came from, they were directed to an Online Survey, where the survey was conducted in English; a link to the questionnaire can be shared upon request. Respondents were awarded points for completing the survey. These points have a small cash-equivalent monetary value.

Cells are only reported on for analysis if they have a minimum of 80 respondents, and statistical significance is calculated at the 95% level. Data is not weighted, but quotas and other parameters are put in place to reach the desired sample.

Interviews are excluded from the final analysis if they failed quality-checking measures. This includes:

• Speeders: Respondents who complete the survey in a time that is quicker than one-third of the median length of interview are disqualified as speeders
• Open ends: All verbatim responses (full open-ended questions as well as other please specify options) are checked for inappropriate or irrelevant text
• Bots: Captcha is enabled on surveys, which allows the research team to identify and disqualify bots
• Duplicates: Survey software has “deduping” based on digital fingerprinting, which ensures nobody is allowed to take the survey more than once

It is worth noting that this survey was only available to individuals with internet access, and the results may not be generalizable to those without internet access.