All five branches of the U.S. military have earned high marks from American adults, according to a Gallup poll.

More than three in four of Americans surveyed who know something about the branches have overall favorable views of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or Coast Guard, according to Gallup. More than half have a strongly favorable opinion.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

In Gallup's annual Confidence in Institutions poll released May 26, at least 72 percent of participants expressed "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the military in the past eight years.

"This Memorial Day, Americans will once again have the opportunity to honor those who fought and died in service of their country," Gallup's Jim Norman said. "It comes at a time when the percentage of Americans who are military veterans continues to shrink, even as the nation moves through the 15th year of the Afghanistan War -- the longest war in U.S. history."

Broken down by branch, Air Force had the highest favorability rating of 81 percent -- 57 percent "very favorable" and 24 percent "somewhat favorable" rating. Other branches were Navy and Marines each at 78 percent, Army at 77 percent, and Coast Guard at 76 percent.

Differences exist by political party, race, and age.

The Air Force had the highest ratings according to the Gallup poll - US Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Couillard

The biggest gap is among Republicans and Democrats with about a 30 percentage point difference. The largest is for the Navy with 74 percent favorability rating by Republicans and 39 percent among Democrats.

Republicans, non-Hispanic whites, and those aged 55 have more favorable views of each of the five branches than Democrats, non-whites, or those younger than 35.

Those surveys also were asked to list the most important branch. Air Force was No. 1 (27 percent) followed by the Army (21 percent), Navy and Marines (20 percent each), and 4 percent say the Coast Guard is the most important branch to national defense.

Gallup conducted telephone interviews April 24-May 2 with a random sample of 1,026 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.