In 2024, conservatives and moderates continued to outpace liberals
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans’ ideological identification was steady in 2024, with an average of 37% describing their political views as “very conservative” or “conservative,” 34% as “moderate,” and 25% as “very liberal” or “liberal.” However, this stability masks new highs in the percentages of Republicans identifying as conservative and Democrats as liberal.
None of the three main ideological groupings of Americans — conservatives, moderates and liberals — has had majority-level status since Gallup began tracking ideology with this measure in 1992. Rather, conservatives and moderates have been closely matched as the two leading groups, while liberals have consistently accounted for a smaller share.
Still, the trend documents changes in the relative strength of each group.
Gallup asks Americans to describe their political views on a five-point “very conservative” to “very liberal” scale, and the trend is based on annual averages of national telephone surveys conducted each year since 1992. The 2024 data include interviews with more than 14,000 U.S. adults.
In 2024, as in recent years, Americans at the extremes of the ideological spectrum — those identifying as very conservative or very liberal — were about equal in number, with each accounting for roughly one in 10 U.S. adults.
Republicans have always been most likely to identify as conservative, but in 2024, 77% described themselves as such, marking a new high by two percentage points and a four-point increase from 2023. This includes 24% of Republicans who said they were very conservative, which is also a new high by one point.
Another 18% of Republicans said they were political moderates, which is the first time the reading — which was as high as the low 30s from 1998 to 2002 — has fallen below 20%. Just 4% of Republicans said they were politically liberal, consistent with prior readings.
The 55% of Democrats identifying as liberal in 2024 is the highest reading for the group by one point, including 19% who said they were very liberal, which is also a new high. Democrats’ liberal identification has more than doubled over the past 30 years.
From 1994 to 2006, pluralities of more than four in 10 Democrats described themselves as moderate, with liberal identification ranging from 25% to 35%. Between 2007 and 2011, Democrats were equally likely to identify as liberal or moderate. Since 2012, liberal Democrats have far outpaced moderate Democrats, including in the past three years, when clear majorities have identified as liberal. In 2024, 34% of Democrats said they were moderate and 9% conservative.
As has been typical for independents, the largest segment described themselves as moderate in 2024; 30% said they were conservative and 20% liberal. While pluralities of independents dating back to 1994 have consistently identified as moderate, from 2009 to 2015, an atypically large share of more than 30% said they were conservative.
Throughout the past 32 years, there have been broad shifts in moderate and liberal identification, but the last decade has seen little change in the overall ideological landscape. Yet, over the past few years, there have been shifts in political ideology within the Republican and Democratic Parties. In 2024, the shares of Republicans identifying as conservative and Democrats identifying as liberal both reached record highs.
As partisans have become increasingly polarized ideologically, so too have the candidates elected to public office representing those parties. That leaves less room for across-the-aisle negotiation on key issues between the two parties in federal and state government. It also has led to intra-party disagreement between ideologically extreme and centrist officeholders of the same party, which has sometimes made it challenging for the controlling parties of institutions to pass legislation their parties favor or handle basic government functions.
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Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.
Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted in 2024 with a combined random sample of 14,162 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.
Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 80% cellphone respondents and 20% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
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Americans’ political party preferences remain closely divided, with Republicans having a slight edge in party ID and leaning for the third consecutive year.
Americans have become significantly more likely to identify as liberal in their views on social issues over the past 25 years. Liberal views on economic issues, too, have increased, but still lean conservative.
Throughout 2024, Gallup’s key indicators signaled the election environment was favorable to Republicans.
Keep up with how Americans react to the Trump administration and how society evolves with key Gallup trends.
Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/655190/political-parties-historically-polarized-ideologically.aspx
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