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Australia is undergoing a historic decline in support for multiculturalism, according to the Lowy Institute’s annual poll, amid a groundswell of fear rooted in mounting economic pessimism and an increasingly illiberal and chaotic world order.

The Lowy poll is the latest edition of the country’s longest-running survey of Australians’ opinions of the world and their place in it, and revealed a record low 31% of the more than 2,000 people surveyed had faith in the United States to act responsibly on the world stage, and just one in five trust the president, Donald Trump, to do the right thing.

With trust in China rising from 20% to 28%, Charles Lyons-Jones, a Lowy research fellow, said this year’s survey marks an extraordinary milestone: for the first time “the two superpowers are distrusted in equal measure”.

“That is a significant change from 2022 when the gap in trust was over 50% in favour of the US,” Lyons-Jones said.

Underpinning the dramatic decline in Australians’ faith in the US was that only one in five surveyed had confidence in Trump to do the right thing in global affairs – the same level of trust in the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping.

Amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, 53% of those surveyed said they feel “unsafe” or “very unsafe” in the world – a level of safety that is 3 percentage points below the previous record low set in 2020 at the onset of Covid.

“When Australians look at the world today they are deeply unsettled,” Lyons-Jones said.

The survey, which was conducted by the Social Research Centre using a nationally representative sample, also showed six in 10 (59%) are pessimistic about Australia’s economic performance over the coming five years – up 12 percentage points from a year earlier and 22 percentage points since the 2022 poll.

The result was also 11 percentage points higher than recorded at the start of the global pandemic in 2020.

Nearly two-thirds of Australians believe the risks of artificial intelligence outweigh the potential benefits – up 12 percentage points since the question was last asked in 2024.

This feeling of insecurity about the state of the world and the economy was starting to be reflected in anxieties about societal change, Lyons-Jones said.

Days after the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, declared she backed a “monocultural” Australia, the poll revealed a 17 percentage-point plunge in the share of people who say cultural diversity has been good for the country, from 90% in 2024 to 73% in the latest poll.

This was the largest single movement on any societal question in the poll’s 22-year history, but Lyons-Jones said it was important to note that the majority of Australians surveyed – 73% – still back multiculturalism as a source of strength.

A majority of Australians surveyed, or 55%, say that the number of migrants coming to Australia is “too high” – up from 48% in 2024 and just past the previous peak of 54% in 2018.

Lyons-Jones said it was notable that the high rates of disapproval in the American president had not been reflected in a collapse in support for the Australia-US alliance, which remained at a “robust” 73%, the poll showed.

“It shows that Australians are quite pragmatic. In a deteriorating strategic environment they accept that an alliance with the US is important for our security,” he said.

This extended to the deal to buy American-made nuclear-powered submarines under the $368bn Aukus agreement, with backing for the purchases holding firm at more than two in three Australians surveyed, or 68%.

Despite an eroding public confidence in the US, Australia’s political orthodoxy echoes public opinion in remaining firmly committed to America as an ally and security patron.

But there is also in shifting government language a recognition that America under Trump is not the US of previous administrations, reflecting an increased wariness with an “America First” ally.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, conceded in May that “the United States is playing a different role now”, saying the decision to go to war with Iran without consulting allies was an example of a fundamentally changed America.

“President Trump was elected on a platform of America First. And so that changes the dynamic in the world. Western democracies have adjusted to that,” Albanese said.