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.
Americans’ Ideological Identification Was Steady in 2024
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.
- Most notably, the percentage of Americans identifying as moderate has declined from an average of 43% in 1992 to 34% in 2024, while conservatism has been fairly steady, fluctuating around the three-decade mean of 38%.
- As a result, moderates fell from being the largest ideological group in the 1990s to tying with conservatives in the early 2000s and lagging conservatives slightly during Barack Obama’s presidency from 2009 to 2016. Since then, the moderate share has tied or slightly trailed the conservative percentage.
- Meanwhile, the percentage identifying as liberal increased from 17% in 1992 to 25% in 2016 and has since remained near that level.
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’ and Democrats’ Ideology Is Most Extreme in 30 Years
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.
Plurality of Independents Continue to Identify as Moderate
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.
Bottom Line
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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