WASHINGTON, DC — Americans’ ideological identification will remain stable in 2024, with an average of 37% calling their political views “very conservative” or “conservative,” 34% “moderate,” and 25% calling their political views “very conservative” or “conservative.” % say they are “very liberal” or “conservative.” “Liberal.” But this stability hides the fact that the percentage of respondents who identify Republicans as conservatives and Democrats as liberals has reached a new high.
Americans’ ideological identity remained stable in 2024
Since Gallup began tracking ideology with this measure in 1992, none of the three major ideological groups of Americans (conservatives, moderates, and liberals) have held majority-level positions. Rather, conservatives and moderates are largely consistent as two major groups, while liberals consistently make up a smaller share.
Still, trends document changes in the relative strength of each group.
Most notably, while the percentage of Americans who identify as moderate has declined from an average of 43% in 1992 to 34% in 2024, conservatism has remained fairly stable, with a 30-year average It fluctuates around a value of 38%. As a result, moderates were the largest ideological group in the 1990s, tied with conservatives in the early 2000s, and trailed slightly behind conservatives during the Barack Obama presidency from 2009 to 2016. I took it. Since then, the share of moderates has either matched or slightly lagged behind that of conservatives. . Meanwhile, the proportion identifying as liberal increased from 17% in 1992 to 25% in 2016 and has remained near that level ever since.
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Gallup asks Americans to describe their political views on a five-point scale from “very conservative” to “very liberal,” a national telephone survey conducted annually since 1992. Based on annual average. The 2024 data includes interviews with people over 2024. 14,000 US adults.
In 2024, as in recent years, the number of Americans at the extremes of the ideological spectrum – those who identify as very conservative or very liberal – will be about the same, each accounting for about 10 It accounted for one in every person.
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Republican and Democratic ideologies are at their most extreme in 30 years
Republicans have always been the most likely to identify themselves as conservative, but in 2024, 77% said they were conservative, a new record of 2 percentage points and an increase of 4 points from 2023. That includes 24% of Republicans who say they are very conservative, also a new high of 1 point.
Additionally, 18% of Republicans say they are politically moderate, marking the first time the poll has fallen below 20%, after being as high as the low 30s from 1998 to 2002. . Consistent with previous research, only 4% of Republicans said they were politically liberal.
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Fifty-five percent of Democrats identify as liberal in 2024, more than one point among Democrats, including 19% who say they are very liberal. This is also a new high. The liberal leanings of the Democratic Party have more than doubled over the past 30 years.
From 1994 to 2006, more than 4 in 10 Democrats described themselves as moderates, while liberal identification ranged from 25% to 35%. Between 2007 and 2011, Democrats were equally likely to identify as liberal or moderate. Since 2012, liberal Democrats have significantly outnumbered moderate Democrats, including the past three years when a clear majority identified as liberal. In 2024, 34% of Democrats say they are moderate and 9% say they are conservative.
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Multiple independents continue to identify as moderates
Typical of independents, the largest group described themselves as moderates in 2024. 30% said they were conservative and 20% said they were liberal. Since 1994, a plurality of independents have consistently identified as moderates, but from 2009 to 2015, an unusual majority of more than 30% identified as conservatives.
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conclusion
While there has been significant change in moderate-liberal identification over the past 32 years, the past decade has seen little change in the overall ideological landscape. However, in recent years there has been a shift in political ideology within the Republican and Democratic parties. In 2024, the percentages of Republicans who identify as conservative and Democrats who identify as liberal will both reach record highs.
As partisans become increasingly ideologically polarized, so too do the candidates elected to public office on behalf of those parties. That leaves less room for cross-aisle negotiations on important issues between the federal and state parties. Also, intra-party disagreements between ideologically extreme and centrist officials of the same party can occur, leading to the dominant party in the institution passing legislation that its own party favors, or At times, it may be difficult to handle various government functions.
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