Gallup Poll: Conservatives Outnumber Moderates
Friday, 13 Jan 2012 12:55 PM
By Andra Varin
Conservatives are the biggest ideological group in the United States, outnumbering moderates for a third straight year and far outpacing liberals, according to a Gallup Poll released Friday.
The poll found 40 percent of Americans described their views in 2011 as conservative, compared to 35 percent who said they were moderates, and 21 percent who identified themselves as liberal.
Gallup said the percentage of Americans who call themselves moderate has been gradually dropping since 1992, when it was 43 percent. It has been at 35 percent since 2010.
Over the past decade, “the country became more politically polarized, with the percentages of Americans calling themselves either ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ each increasing,” the pollster said.
The 2011 results are based on 20 Gallup and USA Today/Gallup surveys taken between January and December 2011. A total of 20,392 adults were interviewed. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percent.
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