Evolving faith: How America’s religious landscape is changing
As Americans observe Ramadan, Easter and Passover, the trend of declining religious service attendance persists, according to recent findings from Gallup and the Pew Research Center. The latest Gallup poll highlights a notable decrease across multiple faiths in the U.S., with only 30% of Americans now attending weekly services — a drop from 42% two decades ago.
Christianity, though still predominant, has seen a significant reduction in adherence among the adult population, declining by 12% since 2011. This trend is especially evident among Protestants, whose participation has decreased by 10% in the last decade.
Conversely, Muslim attendance at mosque services has seen a 4% increase, and Jewish attendance at synagogue services has risen by 7% over the past 20 years.
Gallup analysts link the overall decline in attendance to a growing segment of the American population identifying with no religion — a group that has expanded by 12% in the same timeframe, encompassing atheists and agnostics.
Gallup pinpointed a notable dip in happiness among Americans under 30 as a significant factor behind the country’s slide down the rankings. In contrast, Americans aged 60 and older seem to be faring better, with the U.S. still making it into the top 10 for this age group.
The survey discovered a sharp decline in happiness levels among U.S. youths aged 15-24 since the mid-2000s, in contrast to a more gradual decrease among their counterparts in Western Europe. Meanwhile, Nordic countries maintained their lead in happiness rankings, with Finland at the top, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Australia.
Finland’s consistent top billing as the happiest country marks its seventh consecutive year at the peak of global well-being, a testament to the nation’s enduring quality of life and societal support systems.
Finland has been ranked the Happiest Country in the World, now for seven years in a row.
Many reasons for it, here are my three:
1. Nature. 2. Trust. 3. Education.
There are naturally many other reasons for collective happiness. What would be your top three?
The release of this year’s World Happiness Report aligns with the United Nations’ International Day of Happiness, offering a moment for reflection on the state of global well-being amid ongoing challenges.
Gallup’s three-year survey of over 100,000 people across 143 countries asked participants to rate their lives on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 representing the best possible life.
Only 3.4% of US journalists identify as Republicans, fewest ever
The findings show of 1,600 journalists polled, just 3.4% identified as Republicans. More than 36% said they are Democrats, and the majority, 51%, said they were independent. Nearly 9% of respondents identified as “other.”
The numbers are a drastic change from 50 years ago, when the poll started. In 1971, more than 35% identified as Democrats and over 25% identified as Republicans. In that same poll, nearly 33% of respondents said they were independents.
The numbers have bounced around over the decades. Democrats reached their peak at 44% in 1992, but in recent years, Republicans in media have steadily declined.
The previous version of the study, released in 2013, shows 7% of journalists as Republicans. Meanwhile, independents and Democrats saw an increase in those numbers. A decade later, Democrats are up more than 6% and independents are up nearly 2%.
The latest figures are not in step with the U.S general population.
A Gallup poll in November, revealed 40% of Americans identify as independent. Republicans and Democrats both poll at an even 29%.
A different Gallup poll splits faith in the media along partisan lines. In the poll, 58% of Democrats and 29% of Independents have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media. On the other hand, just 11% of Republicans said they felt the same way.
So why do Republicans find themselves trending towards the extinction category in news?
David Brooks, of the New York Times, voiced his thoughts in an August opinion piece.
“When I began my career in Chicago in the 1980s, there were still some crusty working-class guys around the newsroom,” Brooks wrote. “Now we’re not only a college-dominated profession, we’re an elite college-dominated profession.”
A 2016 Pew Study found highly educated adults, especially those who attended graduate school, are far more likely than those with less education to take liberal positions.
A 2022 Pew Research poll found that younger journalists in the U.S. are much more likely to support unions than their seasoned colleagues.
Younger journalists would lineup politically with national trends.
NPR reported Democrats beat Republicans among those aged 18-29 overwhelmingly in the last midterm election. This age group supported Democrats by almost 30 points over Republicans, as noted by exit poll data.
No Labels explains what it will take to run a Trump-Biden challenger
It’s clear the American people are looking for new options in the 2024 presidential race. If there’s a Trump-Biden rematch, 64% of American voters would feel like the political system is broken, according to a recent CBS News/YouGov poll. A News Nation poll from June found that 49% of voters would consider a third-party candidate if Trump and Biden are once again the major-party nominees.
There is a massive effort underway to give voters that third option through “No Labels,” a group led in part by former Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and former Gov. Larry Hogan, R-Md.
The group aims to welcome people who feel politically homeless and who are tired of extremes on the left and right.
Ryan Clancy, No Labels’ chief strategist, spoke with Straight Arrow News’ Ray Bogan about the group’s efforts as it considers whether to enter a candidate in the race.
Bogan: No Labels wants to get on the ballot in all 50 states. How is that going?
Clancy: Great. I mean, we’ve been at this for over a year and a half. Eight-hundred thousand signatures that we’ve gathered. We’re on the ballot in 11 states now — and that’s about as many as you can be on. Interestingly enough, some states don’t even let you get started until next year. So anytime a state opens up, we’re in there working to get on the ballot and feel very good about our prospects for getting on all 50 and D.C. by next year.
Bogan: No Labels says it wants to be the insurance policy for 2024. Your strategy says, “We are preparing for the possibility of nominating a candidate. We have not yet committed to do so. We will run ONLY under the proper environmental conditions.” What are the proper environmental conditions?
Clancy: Basically, there’s got to be an opening. We’ve said from the very start we have no interest in fueling any kind of protest or spoiler effort. This is only worth doing if it looks like there’s an actual path to victory. And there’s a lot of reasons today to suggest there is.
You cited the polls at the top about Americans dissatisfaction with the choices they’re likely to get in 2024. But we’ve of course done our own polling and research, the latest of which found 63% said they’d be open to voting for a moderate independent candidate if it were Trump and Biden.
You just don’t see numbers like this. Anybody who says, “Well, this time is different, Americans are usually kind of unhappy with their choices.” This time is different. We really have never seen this level of dissatisfaction and this level of openness to an alternative.
Bogan: People like to speculate as to who the No Labels candidate would take more votes away from, Joe Biden or Donald Trump. How does a third party avoid being a spoiler?
Clancy: Well, first, we got to agree on what a spoiler is. And to me a spoiler is, one, a candidate that can’t win. And two, it’s a candidate that whatever votes they do take, they take disproportionately from one party.
So you think about somebody like a Ralph Nader in 2000, who got only 2.5% of the vote, most of those votes probably would have went to Al Gore. Jill Stein in 2016 same deal, 1%, most of those votes probably would have went to Hillary Clinton.
But No Labels will never put up a ticket that looks like that. By definition, we would be putting forth a ticket that has a broad appeal to Americans across the political spectrum. And that’s why the polling and modeling we’ve done thus far shows no labels ticket pulling pretty evenly from both sides.
Bogan: Do you think that waiting so long to get a candidate in could ultimately hurt you in the long run? All the other major party candidates are all out there campaigning right now.
Clancy: I don’t think so. I mean, one of the things that is interesting is we of course have the permanent campaign in America. But being out there more, for more time, doesn’t necessarily accrue to the benefit of candidates. Sometimes they get a little stale over time. So, we’re going to have a convention in April of 2024 in Dallas, Texas. That’s the latest date in which we put up a ticket. And if we do, that still gives them a good seven months to go make their case to the American public.
Bogan: Is it more important for the No Labels party to come up with new ideas? Or promote the best ideas that are already out there, or more moderate or compromised versions of what’s already out there?
Clancy: Well, it’s a little bit of both. In July, we actually released our commonsense policy booklet, people can find it at Commonsensemajority.org. And this was based on our years’ worth of research and polling to see what the public really cares about. And what you’ll find in this booklet is 30 ideas that we think you could fairly say characterizes — this is where most Americans want to go on most issues. And if a unity ticket were to come along, we certainly don’t expect that they’d pick up every idea in this booklet, but that would be a great starting point.
Bogan: The CBS News-YouGov poll I mentioned earlier found that 51% of Biden voters say their vote is to oppose Trump, while 39% of Trump voters say they’re vote is to oppose Joe Biden. The protest vote numbers were worse for the 2016 election Trump v. Clinton. If people are this unhappy with their candidates, why do you think more hasn’t been done to grow roots at the local and state level?
Clancy: Well, one thing to be clear, No Labels isn’t a political party. We’re what’s called a 501C4 organization, we’re just working to get on the ballot. But I do think generally speaking, you see a growing appetite for something different from American voters. It is so obvious. And I think one of the mistakes that both parties are making is, you think about that number you put up earlier, 60% plus, they think it was a failure if we had a rematch of 2020.
If we had a functioning political system, the parties would adjust to that and they would give the public something they actually want. I think the problem we’re in now is that on some level both parties don’t even think they need to give us good choices anymore. They just figure in the end, you’ll hate and fear the person on the other side more and you’ll come home and vote for us. That’s part of the reason why there’s such an opening for, and an appetite for, what No Labels might be offering.
Bogan: Gallup had a poll that came out earlier this year that showed 41% of Americans identify as political independents. In the 31 states that report voters’ party affiliations — 38% are Democrats, 29% are Republicans and 28% are independents. People say how can a third-party candidate ever get enough support, but with that statistic in mind, why isn’t there a major independent candidate more often?
Clancy: Well, interestingly enough, that Gallup finding you cited, it was 41% earlier in the year, the latest reading on that is 47%. And interestingly enough, if you go back 30 years ago, when Ross Perot ran, that was the last time there was really a serious third alternative in the race. Only about 32-33% of Americans considered themselves as Independents at that time.
So you see this vast expansion in the universe of people who don’t want to affiliate themselves with the major parties, you see their dissatisfaction with the likely presidential nominees they’re gonna get. And then of course, you just have the broader attitude in the country where you look at things where people say, you know, only 16% of people trust the federal government to do the right thing. That’s the lowest reading and 70 years.
Seventy-eight percent of the public doesn’t think their kids are going to be better off than they are. That’s the worst reading in 40 years. And so there’s so much out there to suggest that the public is desperate for something different. In a lot of ways it shouldn’t surprise anybody that there’s this level of support for a No Labels offering, given the broader attitudes we’re seeing in the country and the dissatisfaction they have with our political system.
Bogan: Recently it was reported that Mitt Romney has been considering forming a new party that wouldn’t have its own candidate. He was quoted as saying, “This party’s going to endorse whichever party’s nominee isn’t stupid.” What do you make of the strategy of seeking to promote a candidate that is already running rather than entering your own candidate?
Clancy: You know, that’s actually the first I’ve heard of that. I mean, I had heard he retired last week. But look, you do see a lot of, in any marketplace, when there’s an opening, you see a lot of people come in and try to fill that.
So you saw last year, that the Forward Party, that is a new political party that’s trying to be created from the ground up. Obviously, Senator Romney’s looking to create something there. I mean, that famous saying that, you know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
I think that’s how Americans feel about our politics right now. They know if we have a repeat of this election, it is not going to solve the underlying divisions that we have in the country. And it is not going to let us tackle the problems that desperately need solving. You think about our immigration system, you think about our budget situation, that is only going to get solved with Republicans and Democrats at the table working together. And that’s why No Labels ultimately is considering putting this offer on the table early next year.
Americans say media bias divides the nation. This chart shows most polarizing.
For the first time in recorded history, more Americans report having no trust in mass media reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly than those who trust media a fair or great amount. The results from the most recent Gallup poll on the topic show overall trust in media remains near a record low.
Meanwhile, nearly 3 in 4 Americans believe the media is doing more to increase polarization in the country, according to a 2023 AP-NORC poll.
Media bias is a prevailing concern for news consumers. Half of Americans reported feeling that most national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public, Gallup and Knight Foundation found.
It’s no surprise, then, that Americans are increasingly searching for unbiased news sources. Google searches spike around elections, with the most interest in history recorded in November 2020.
“Americans recognize the problem,” said Vanessa Otero, CEO of Ad Fontes Media and creator of the Media Bias Chart. “They realize when there’s this flood of information that they have to sort through, and unfortunately, because there are so many news sources, the responsibility falls on folks to sort through them.”
Third-party media bias evaluators like Ad Fontes Media aim to help news consumers navigate the increasingly crowded and complex media terrain using a simple media bias chart.
Source: Ad Fontes.
While analyzing bias can also be inherently biased, Ad Fontes Media said it combats that by using a politically balanced group of analysts to determine where media organizations score on its chart. That means each piece of news is rated by analysts who identify as right-leaning, left-leaning and center.
Straight Arrow News spoke to Ad Fontes Media CEO Vanessa Otero about America’s media bias problem and how it’s affecting society.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: How have you seen the media bias landscape change since you started analyzing this in 2016?
A: It’s a great question. It’s grown. There are just more and more and more news and information sources out there every day. Unfortunately, one way it hasn’t changed is that it’s still quite polarizing. When I started the Media Bias Chart in 2016, the impetus of it was really the fact that there were so many polarizing news sources and people were fighting over them. Unfortunately, that’s still the case, but there’s just more to navigate.
Q: Would you say there are more hyper-partisan options now or more options in the middle?
A: I think there’s more of both. There are a lot of news sources that are in the middle. Most of the news sources we rate tend to be less biased, but the ones that are on the far left and right are the loudest and they seem to get most of the attention.
So there’s really more of both. But because there are so many news sources to choose from, people have to be really intentional about seeking out things that are minimally biased and highly reliable.
Q: What does that tell us about Americans’ news consumption if the ones on the edges are getting more viewership and attention?
A: Look, folks are polarized. Every poll that you look at shows increasing and increasing polarization over the last 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. And not just polarization but what’s called affective polarization: the kind where it makes you dislike, distrust, or even hate folks on the other side.
That, I think, is really damaging and dangerous. When you’re not assuming the folks on the other side have good intentions; when you’re just assuming that they disagree with you because they’re stupid or evil or both, it’s really hard to come to any kind of consensus.
But things that you agree with tend to give you this confirmation bias. We’re programmed to like things that we already agree with. So what it tells you about Americans is that we can fall into those traps really easily.
It’s not hopeless, though. We can do something about it. We can recognize that something that we’re strongly agreeing with is just feeding our confirmation bias; that maybe that’s not the most effective way to make decisions or live your life. If politics is dividing your family and your friends, you’re not able to have conversations with folks, it may be an indication that you’re focusing on very polarizing news sources.
Q: This is going to be a hard question to answer. It’s sort of a ‘chicken versus the egg’ argument. Do you think that more media bias is increasing political division or do you think it’s the other way around?
A: Great question. The causes of polarization are many. There are constitutional causes because you can have politicians that drive polarization. But the media is a big part of it.
There are many stakeholders in our democracy – the citizenry, politicians, the media – and each influences each other in a push-and-pull kind of way.
One thing we’ve seen since the advent of cable news is the participation of politicians in media. How often do you look at a cable news show and politicians are on the cable news show? This happens all night, every night, every channel.
So politicians are part of the media and politicians, just like every other citizen, are susceptible to confirmation bias; to being wrapped up in their own side’s stuff and not being able to filter out highly reliable versus low-reliable information.
I don’t know if you notice, but there are some politicians that are not very good at telling what’s true in the news and they participate in the extreme bias of the news. So I think it’s really a combination of both where they feed off of each other.
Q: CNN says it’s unbiased. Fox dropped the ‘Fair and Balanced’ slogan but says it’s the most trusted. What does your analysis say?
A: It’s funny, what you say as a slogan and what you actually do can be different things. Also, how people perceive you can be really different things.
One of the most common ways of measuring media bias is consumer opinion polling: asking people, ‘How much do you trust Fox or CNN or MSNBC?’ And really, the answer to that question tells you so much more about the person and their politics than it does about the news source.
The way we go about it is by analyzing the content, which is hard to do. It’s a little bit easier to poll a bunch of folks and say, ‘What do you think about this?’ But the content itself has the answers.
You can look at the headlines, the graphics and each individual sentence. You can see how they’re expressed as fact, analysis and opinion, and you can fact-check the claims that are in there. You can see if they advocate for left or right political positions. You can see how they refer to political issues or opponents. So you can actually tell from looking at the content.
What our data shows is that Fox is right-leaning, CNN is left-leaning, and MSNBC is left-leaning, a little bit more so than CNN. And they have varying levels of reliability. What’s really fascinating is that internet content – like CNN.com, FoxNews.com, or MSNBC.com – tends to be less biased and more reliable than their TV counterparts, which have a lot of primetime opinion programming. And opinion programming really isn’t news.
Q: It is our belief that Americans are hungry for unbiased news. That is why Straight Arrow News is here. How is Straight Arrow News doing in that mission, according to your analysis?
A: Really well. I think Straight Arrow News is correct in the assumption that people are looking for unbiased news. Of course, everyone has some bias, right? It’s really hard to be unbiased. But you can mitigate your bias as best you can by trying, by showing balance and by describing things as straightforwardly as possible.
We’ve seen so many Americans say, ‘Yes, we want unbiased news. Can I just go turn something on where I’m not being told what to think? Or I’m just getting the facts?’ People say that all the time. It’s one of the reasons you see this level of trust declining in those opinion polls. People don’t trust news when it’s more full of opinion and analysis than actual fact reporting.
Straight Arrow News is right in the middle for bias on our chart. That middle section is labeled minimal or balanced bias. And it’s rated as highly reliable. That’s what we’re looking for in the media landscape. That’s what we want. We want to promote the work of good journalists who are bringing folks facts that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to find on their own.
Q: In the history of Google search trends, the search for unbiased news sources was never higher than in November 2020. What does that tell us about what Americans are looking for as they go to the polls?
A: So much. We actually did some studies around social media and monitoring the spread of biased and unreliable information before, during and after the November 2020 election. There was a marked increase in misinformation and polarizing content being shared across the board.
People have a need and desire to be well-informed. They don’t want to feel lost. You don’t want to go around not knowing what’s true. It’s very disorienting. It’s very unsettling.
What that tells me is that Americans recognize the problem. Americans are smart. They realize when there’s this flood of information that they have to sort through and unfortunately, because there are so many news sources, the responsibility falls on folks to sort through them.
That’s why we exist because no one has time to sort through tens of thousands of information sources. So we’re a reference point. Ultimately, people should make the determinations for themselves and learn to recognize reliability and bias. But when there are just so many out there, it’s really helpful to have a guidepost. And so we just hope we can be that for folks.
Study: 12th grade boys lean conservative, but not politically invested
An annual survey is getting some buzz because it revealed that 23% of 12th grade males identify as conservative, compared to just 13% who identify as liberal. That statistic is getting attention because it directly contradicts reports and opinions that state young people are mostly liberal.
But there’s additional information that is not being discussed.
According to a Monitoring the Future study, over 40% said “none of the above” or “I don’t know” when asked about political beliefs while about 20% identify as moderate.
This survey’s results tend to align with Gallup data that found more young men aged 18-29 identify as conservative rather than liberal, but a plurality (43%) told Gallup they are moderate.
But none of those surveys align with the voting habits of 18- to 29-year-old males. In the 2022 midterm election, they voted for Democrats over Republicans by a 12-point margin.
Straight Arrow News went to Capitol Hill and spoke with students from around the country about their political beliefs. The young men had a broad spectrum of views.
Here’s how they felt and why
SAN spoke with members of the Heyboer family who said they are conservative.
“I’m a Christian and I believe what the Bible has to say. And I believe that the truths in the Bible most closely aligned with that viewpoint,” Jacob Heyboer said.
When asked how they formed those beliefs, Jeremiah Heyboer told SAN that it’s a combination of the way they were raised and added, “the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of that.”
Jayson from Brooklyn, who declined to give his last name, said he’s a registered Democrat because he comes from a family of Democrats.
“I just agree and align with what they believe in,” Jayson said.
He explained that his first year in college solidified his political ideology.
“I’m more on the liberal side,” Greyson Wilder from Michigan said.
Wilder said he determined he was liberal after he took a survey in his government class that informs respondents where they fall and all his answers leaned left.
Tony Gamez from Texas told SAN he is an independent because both Republicans and Democrats stand for things that he both agrees and disagrees with.
But while their views have been influenced by their faith and family, these students said they aren’t very invested.
“On a scale of 1-10, probably like a two or three.” Jayson said. “I do feel that I could be more politically involved and do my own research so I can feel comfortable with what I identify as.”
“I wouldn’t want to make a decision that doesn’t sit with me well, just because I’m not educated enough on it. So definitely before I become like a member of the party or whatever, I would have to be really educated on what I was doing,” Wilder said.
In October 2022, a survey from The New York Times and Siena College found that 19% of voters said politics had hurt their friendships or family relationships. SAN asked the students if political views impact their relationships.
“I know some of my family members think a certain way and I think completely different, but I don’t let that determine, like, how I think of them as a person,” Wilder said. “Because, like, my parents taught me just never bring politics to the table, especially a family cause it could ruin literally everything.”
“I don’t think that I bring a lot of political stuff into friendships,” Gamez said. “I like having friendships for who they are.”
Gallup poll: Belief in religious entities continues downward trend
After reporting that U.S. church attendance has been falling in recent years, a new Gallup poll found belief in five of the religious entities associated with church are following a similar trend. The entities Gallup asked respondents about include God, angels, heaven hell and the devil.
“The percentages of Americans who believe in each of five religious entities — God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil — have edged downward by three to five percentage points since 2016,” Gallup wrote in a report on the poll results. “As the percentage of believers has dropped over the past two decades, the corresponding increases have occurred mostly in nonbelief, with much smaller increases in uncertainty. This is true for all but belief in God, which has seen nearly equal increases in uncertainty and nonbelief.”
The 3-5% drop since 2016 continued a larger trend of decreasing religious belief since Gallup first conducted this poll.
Here’s how the results between then and the most recent poll breakdown:
God: 74% in 2023, 90% in 2001.
Angels: 69% in 2023, 79% in 2001.
Heaven: 67% in 2023, 83% in 2001.
Hell: 59% in 2023, 71% in 2001.
The devil: 58% in 2023, 68% in 2001.
The link between decreased church attendance and decreased belief in religious entities appears to be represented in the poll results. Less than half of respondents who rarely attend or never attend church said they believe in heaven, hell or the devil.
The poll also found Protestants are more likely than Catholics to believe in each of the five entities. The same is the case with Republicans vs. Democrats.
“The Protestant-Catholic differences are smaller on belief in God and angels than on heaven, hell and the devil. In both religious groups, the minority of people who do not express belief in God are more likely to say they are unsure than express nonbelief,” Gallup concluded. “Between 78% and 87% of Republicans believe in the five entities, while 51% to 68% of independents do. From 56% to 66% of Democrats believe in God, angels and heaven, while less than half say they believe in hell and the devil.”
Church attendance continues to fall, now below pre-pandemic levels: poll
The way Americans practice their faith is undergoing a transformation, as traditional religious institutions have witnessed a decline in attendance and individuals explore alternative avenues to express their spirituality. While a significant portion of the population identifies as religious, only about one in four Americans currently attend religious services, according to a recent Gallup poll.
The impact of the pandemic on church attendance has been profound, with levels dropping as low as 29% of the U.S. population, including both physical and virtual attendees. Surprisingly, even though the pandemic offered new opportunities for individuals to engage with religious services online, the number of people affiliated with a church, whether in-person or virtually, hit an all-time low since the survey’s inception in 1939. However, a closer examination reveals that the decline in church attendance was a trend that had been ongoing for years prior to the pandemic.
“It is not clear if the pandemic is the cause of the reduced attendance or if the decline is a continuation of trends that were already in motion,” Jeffrey M. Jones, a senior editor for Gallup, wrote.
In the 1950s, religious service attendance reached its peak, with one in every two Americans participating in religious gatherings at churches, synagogues, mosques, or temples. By 2012, that number had declined to 40%, indicating a 10-point dip over a 60-year span. Comparatively, from 2012 to 2022, church attendance experienced another 10-point decline over just a 10-year period, bringing the percentage of churchgoers to a mere 30%.
Although the pandemic further exacerbated the decrease in church attendance, the preceding years already indicated a significant shift in religious engagement.
While the pandemic resulted in an all-time low for church attendance, the trend leading up to this point suggests that the country was already headed in that direction, with the health emergency merely hastening the process.
With a declining congregation and approximately 5% of followers participating remotely, churches find themselves with only 25% of the population walking through their doors. This reality necessitates a careful examination of how religious institutions can adapt to changing times.
Despite the decline in attendance at organized religious services, a substantial 76% of the U.S. population still holds religious beliefs. However, the majority of individuals choose to practice their faith in ways that extend beyond the traditional confines of religious institutions.
Gallup: Social conservatism in America at highest rate in a decade
According to recent polling data, a growing number of Americans are shifting more towards conservative outlooks on social issues. The Gallup analytics group’s 2023 Annual Values and Beliefs Survey found that social conservatism in the United States has reached its highest rate in approximately a decade.
Gallup’s data indicated that 38% of Americans identified as either very conservative or conservative on social issues. The last time such a significant percentage of Americans identified as socially conservative was in 2012.
Conversely, the survey revealed a decline in the number of respondents who identified as very liberal or liberal on social issues, which now stands at 29% of Americans. This year’s data marks only the second time since 2011 that the percentage of liberal-leaning respondents has been lower than the current total.
The trend toward conservative values observed in Gallup’s data aligns with other studies that have explored specific partisan issues. For instance, ahead of an impending Supreme Court decision on the legality of colleges and universities considering race in admissions decisions, Pew Research found that 50% of U.S. adults disapprove of this practice, while 33% approve.
Among the study’s conservative respondents, nearly three-quarters (74%) expressed their disapproval of colleges employing this practice. In contrast, a slimmer majority of liberal respondents, 54%, expressed their support for it.
In the realm of gender identity, an increasing number of Americans have indicated their belief that a person’s sex is binary, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. In 2021, 59% of Americans held the view that there are only two genders. However, this number has risen to 65% in 2023. The shift occurred across nearly every political, religious and generational category.
Conversely, the percentage of Americans advocating for the existence of many possible gender identities has correspondingly decreased. In 2021, 40% supported the idea, which has now dropped to 34% in 2023.
Poll: 18% of Americans satisfied with state of nation, gov’t named top problem
A new Gallup poll found just 18% of Americans are satisfied with the state of nation. That’s about half of the historical average for American satisfaction.
While low, May’s satisfaction was actually slightly up from the 16% satisfaction reported in April. It was also higher than the 13% satisfaction reported in June and July of 2022, when inflation had a stronger grip on the U.S. economy.
Going back to the beginning of the decade, satisfaction dipped as low as 11% on Jan. 4, 2021, two days before the Capitol riots. It was a steep drop from the 45% satisfaction reported on Feb. 3, 2020, just a month before the pandemic began.
“Gallup has measured national satisfaction since 1979. The lowest reading was 7% in October 2008 during the height of the financial crisis,” Gallup said in a news article on the poll. “The high point was 71% in February 1999 during the dot-com boom and after the Senate acquitted President Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial.”
When asked what the most important problem facing the nation today, the government itself was the top answer. The economy and immigration tied for the second most common answer.
“Americans’ confidence in the U.S. economy also remains depressed, with Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index essentially unchanged at -43 in May after dropping in April,” Gallup said. “However, like the national satisfaction measure, it is not as low as last summer, when it fell to -58 in June 2022, the lowest Gallup had recorded since the Great Recession.”
Inflation, crime, guns and the federal deficit also made the list of popular responses from Americans taking the state of the nation satisfaction poll.
