Americans Rapidly Answering the Call to Isolate, Prepare

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the span of a week, Americans have gone from tepid adoption of social distancing to majorities engaging in nearly every major practice advocated by government and health officials as ways to contain community spread of the novel coronavirus. But there is a long way to go to approach full compliance.

Gallup polling conducted March 13-15 and March 16-19 shows the biggest increases in social distancing occurring with those avoiding public places like grocery stores and restaurants (+24 percentage points to 54% doing this) and avoiding small social gatherings (+23 points to 46%).

Majorities last weekend were already avoiding traveling by airplane or mass transit and avoiding events with large crowds out of concern for coronavirus. But with 20-point jumps in these behaviors this week, more than 70% of Americans are now on board with them.

	Mar 13-15	Mar 16-19	Change
	%	%	pct. pts.
Avoided going to public places, such as stores or restaurants	30	54	24
Avoided small gatherings of people, such as with family or friends	23	46	23
Avoided traveling by airplane, bus, subway or train	55	75	20
Avoided going to events with large crowds, such as concerts, festivals or sporting events	59	79	20
Canceled or postponed travel plans	39	57	18
Stocked up on food, medical supplies or cleaning supplies	39	52	13
Gallup Panel, 2020

These findings are from a self-administered web survey using the Gallup Panel, a national probability-based panel of U.S. adults, 18 and older.

The trend shows Americans are moving less quickly to stockpile essential supplies, something that could be important in the event a household is quarantined due to illness, or if groceries and other supplies were to become scarce in the coming weeks and months. Just over half of Americans, 52%, say they have stocked up on food, medical or cleaning supplies as a safeguard from coronavirus disruption, up 13 points since the first polling period.

Most Americans who are not already adopting each social distancing measure are at least considering them. However, a quarter are still not considering avoiding small social gatherings, and about one in five are not considering stocking up on supplies.

	Have done	Considering doing	Have not considered
	%	%	%
Avoided going to events with large crowds, such as concerts, festivals or sporting events	79	12	9
Avoided traveling by airplane, bus, subway or train	75	13	13
Canceled or postponed travel plans	57	17	26
Avoided going to public places, such as stores or restaurants	54	30	16
Stocked up on food, medical supplies or cleaning supplies	52	27	21
Avoided small gatherings of people, such as with family or friends	46	28	25
Gallup Panel, Mar 16-19, 2020

Willingness to Comply With Shelter-in-Place Orders Also Grows

California, New York and Illinois are now under orders to stay at home as much as possible except for essential work and shopping activities.

Prior to these developments, about half of Americans (51%), up from 41% over the weekend, described themselves as very likely to comply if public health officials recommend everyone stay home for a month should there be a serious outbreak of coronavirus in their community.

Another 27% said they were somewhat likely to comply, while 23% were somewhat or very unlikely.

	Mar 13-15	Mar 16-19	Change
	%	%	pct. pts.
Very likely	41	51	+10
Somewhat likely	29	27	-2
Somewhat unlikely	14	11	-3
Very unlikely	16	12	-4
Total likely	70	78	+8
Total unlikely	30	23	-7
Gallup Panel, 2020

Despite Increased Distancing, Strong Partisan Differences Persist

The country is approaching universal adherence to avoidance of large crowds and travel, with more than seven in 10 adults of all age groups, all political parties and regions saying they are already eschewing these activities.

More variation is seen at the level of smaller interactions, including staying away from stores and restaurants and foregoing visits with friends and family. While more Americans across the societal spectrum are taking both precautions, women, residents of the Northeast, those living in high population density areas, and Democrats are more likely to be doing so than residents living in other regions, particularly the South and Midwest, in low-density areas, and Republicans.

	Mar 13-15	Mar 16-19	Change
	%	%	pct. pts.
U.S. adults	30	54	+24
Gender
Men	25	50	+25
Women	35	59	+24
Age
18 to 29	35	57	+22
30 to 59	28	54	+26
60+	33	54	+21
Region
Northeast	36	65	+29
Midwest	30	52	+22
South	27	48	+21
West	32	57	+25
Party ID
Republicans	21	43	+22
Independents	27	54	+27
Democrats	41	65	+24
Population density
Top quintile (most dense)	41	66	+25
Second quintile	34	62	+28
Third quintile	20	56	+36
Fourth quintile	25	49	+24
Bottom quintile (least dense)	29	42	+13
Gallup Panel, 2020

	Mar 13-15	Mar 16-19	Change
	%	%	pct. pts.
U.S. adults	23	46	+23
Gender
Men	20	41	+21
Women	26	51	+25
Age
18 to 29	24	45	+21
30 to 59	24	47	+23
60+	22	46	+24
Region
Northeast	20	56	+36
Midwest	22	45	+23
South	23	42	+19
West	26	47	+21
Party ID
Republicans	12	37	+25
Independents	23	48	+25
Democrats	32	52	+20
Population density
Top quintile (most dense)	30	60	+30
Second quintile	27	49	+22
Third quintile	19	47	+28
Fourth quintile	20	46	+26
Bottom quintile (least dense)	18	33	+15
Gallup Panel, 2020

Spectrum of Behavior Underscores Opportunity for Much More Distancing

Another Gallup Panel question asks respondents to characterize how much they are isolating themselves along a spectrum ranging from complete isolation to no attempt at isolation.

Just 17% say they are completely isolated, having no contact with people outside their household, while another 36% identify as "mostly isolated" -- meaning they are having very little outside contact. The combined 53% of these two responses matches the percentage separately saying they are avoiding public places.

At the other end of the spectrum, 26% describe themselves as isolated only a little or not at all, leaving 21% in the middle who are "partially isolated."

	Mar 16-19
	%
Completely isolated yourself, having no contact with people outside your household	17
Mostly isolated yourself, having very little contact with people outside your household	36
Partially isolated yourself, having some contact with people outside your household	21
Isolated yourself a little, still having a fair amount of contact with people outside your household	16
Did not make any attempt to isolate yourself from people outside your household	11
Gallup Panel, 2020

Gallup will continue to monitor and report these measures frequently on news.Gallup.com in the coming days.

Learn more about how the Gallup Panel works.