Conservatives comprise the largest ideological group in the United States, with nearly twice as many Americans saying they are conservative as those claiming to be liberal, Gallup surveys reveal.
Data issued by Gallup on Monday are based on 10 separate surveys conducted from January through May, and therefore the margins of error "are quite small," Gallup maintains.
The surveys found that thus far in 2009, 40 percent of respondents describe their political views as conservative, 35 percent as moderate, and 21 percent as liberal. The rest said they have "no opinion.”
Included in the conservative figure are the 9 percent who said they are "very conservative," while the liberals' figure includes 5 percent who are "very liberal."
A solid majority of Republicans, 73 percent, call themselves conservative, 24 percent are moderate and only 3 percent are liberal.
Democrats are more equally divided, with 40 percent saying they are moderate and 38 percent describing their views as liberal. A surprising 22 percent of Democrats say they are conservative, Gallup found.
Among independents, 34 percent are conservative, 20 percent are liberal and 45 percent are moderate.
Men are more likely than women to be conservative — 44 percent of men are conservative compared to 37 percent of women. But 23 percent of women are liberal, compared to 20 percent of men, and 39 percent of women and 35 percent of men are moderate. Conservatives, then, outnumber liberals among both genders.
Differences in political views among age groups "could have important political implications in the years ahead," Gallup noted.
Americans ages 30 and older are twice as likely to be conservative than liberal, and among those 65 and older, conservatives enjoy a three-to-one margin.
But 31 percent of respondents ages 18 to 29 said they are liberal, 30 percent said conservative, and 39 percent said moderate.
"While these figures have shown little change over the past decade, the nation appears to be slightly more polarized than it was in the early 1990s," Gallup observed.
"Compared with the 1992-1994 period, the percentage of moderates has declined from 42 percent to 35 percent, while the percentages of conservatives and liberals are up slightly — from 38 percent to 40 percent for conservatives and a larger 17 percent to 21 percent movement for liberals."
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
|
