WASHINGTON, DC — Americans’ ideological identification was stable 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 “conservative”. “liberal.” However, this stability masks new highs in the percentages of Republicans identifying as conservative and Democrats as liberal.
Americans’ ideological identification was stable in 2024
None of the three major ideological groups of Americans — conservatives, moderates and liberals — have achieved majority status since Gallup began tracking ideology with this measure in 1992. Rather, conservatives and moderates have been closely related as the two main groups, while liberals have always represented a smaller share.
Nonetheless, the trend documents changes in the relative strength of each group.
- Most notably, the percentage of Americans identifying as moderates has declined from an average of 43% in 1992 to 34% in 2024, while conservatism has remained fairly stable, fluctuating around the three-decade average of 38%.
- As a result, moderates went from being the largest ideological group in the 1990s to being on par with conservatives in the early 2000s and falling slightly behind conservatives during Barack Obama’s presidency from 2009 to 2016. Since then, the moderate share equaled or slightly followed the percentage of conservatives. .
- At the same time, the percentage identifying as liberal increased from 17% in 1992 to 25% in 2016 and has remained near that level since.
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Gallup asks Americans to describe their political views on a five-point scale ranging from “very conservative” to “very liberal,” and the trend is based on annual averages of national telephone surveys conducted each year since 1992. The data from 2024 include interviews with more than 14,000 U.S. adults.
In 2024, as in recent years, Americans at the ends of the ideological spectrum—those who identify as very conservative or very liberal—were roughly equal in number, with each accounting for about one in ten American adults.
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The ideology of Republicans and Democrats is the most extreme in 30 years
Republicans have historically been the most likely to identify as conservative, but in 2024, 77% described themselves as such, marking a new high of two percentage points and an increase of four points from 2023. This includes 24%. Republicans who called themselves conservative. very conservative, which is also a new high of one point.
18% of Republicans identify as politically moderate, which is the first time that this figure – which reached 30 between 1998 and 2002 – has fallen below 20%. Only 4% of Republicans say they are politically liberal, which is consistent with previous readings.
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The 55% of Democrats identifying as liberal in 2024 is the highest figure in the group by one point, including 19% who identified as liberal. very liberal, which also constitutes a new peak. Liberal identification among Democrats has more than doubled over the past 30 years.
From 1994 to 2006, more than four in ten 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, where clear majorities identified as liberal. In 2024, 34% of Democrats called themselves moderate and 9% conservative.
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A plurality of independents continue to identify as moderates
As is typically the case for independents, the largest segment describes itself as moderate in 2024; 30% say they are conservative and 20% liberal. While pluralities of independents since 1994 have consistently identified as moderates, from 2009 to 2015 an atypically high proportion of more than 30% identified as conservative.
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Conclusion
Over the past 32 years, vast shifts have taken place in moderate and liberal identification, but the past decade has seen little change in the overall ideological landscape. However, in recent years, changes in political ideology have taken place. In the Republican and Democratic parties. By 2024, the shares of Republicans identifying as conservative and Democrats identifying as liberal have both reached record highs.
As partisans have become increasingly ideologically polarized, so have the candidates elected to public office representing these parties. This leaves less room for cross-party negotiations on key issues between the two parties in the federal and state governments. This also led to intra-party disagreements between ideologically extremist and centrist leaders of the same party, which sometimes made it difficult for parties controlling institutions to pass laws favorable to their parties or manage government functions of base.
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