Where do Americans find most common ground? It’s not religion, gender or race, poll says
Most Americans say they have more in common with someone in the same age group or political party over five other identity classifications, a poll found.
Twenty-seven percent of Americans say they have the most in common with people in the same age group and 24% say they share the most similarities with people in the same political party, according to a Nov. 4 YouGov poll.
The poll, taken between Oct. 15 and 17, asked 1,153 U.S. adults to choose between age, political party, living proximity, gender, religion, money, and race or ethnicity. The poll has a margin of error of 4%.
Most of the answers changed little since the organization first started asking the question in 2017, but the data does show a growing gap between age and political party and all the other identities — underscoring the country’s increasingly polarized politics.
According to the poll, 17% of respondents said they share the most interests and concerns with people who live near them and 17% also said the same for people of the same gender. Sixteen percent answered religion, 13% said people in the same financial bracket and 12% said people of the same racial or ethnic background.
Seven years ago, a similar share of respondents said they had the most in common with people of the same political party (19%), living proximity (17%) and religion (17%), according to a similar poll done in 2017.
Now, however, the data shows a seven-percentage point gap between political party and living proximity and an eight-percentage point gap between political party and religion.
While 27% of Americans said they had the most in common with people in the same age group in both 2017 and 2024, political party showed a five-percentage point increase since 2017, the survey found.
“Americans are now more likely to have viewpoints and social identities that match their partisanship,” Matt Grossmann, director of Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research said in an online Q&A. “And politics have become about everything, from consumer choices to family lifestyles.”
The biggest difference by political partisanship was religion, the 2024 survey found.
Forty-seven percent of Republicans said they share a lot of common interests and concerns with people of the same religious beliefs, compared to 21% of Democrats who said the same thing, according to the poll.
When compared to the other categories, 27% of Republicans said they share the most in common with people of the same religion, 16-percentage points higher than how Democrats responded.
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 10:46 AM with the headline "Where do Americans find most common ground? It’s not religion, gender or race, poll says."
