Story Highlights
- Liberal identity of young people and older women up 11 points since 1999
- Middle-aged women also became more liberal, but less strongly
- Men’s ideological views have changed less but are slightly more liberal
WASHINGTON, DC — While remarkable in its own right, the slight shift to the left The long-term trend in American political ideology that Gallup has previously documented is even more significant when looking at the trend among different age and gender groups. Increased liberalism since the 1990s has manifested itself much more strongly among women in certain age groups, while men’s views have been more stable.
Gallup’s national figures on Americans’ political ideology show the country remains center-right, with more people identifying as conservative (36%) than liberal (25%) and the remainder calling themselves moderate (36%). ). However, the percentage of “liberals” has increased slightly over the past three decades and is currently one percentage point away from its all-time high. This has occurred as the group of “moderates” has declined, while the percentage of “conservatives” has varied closely around the long-term average, near 38%.
The following trends detail the evolution of these opinions in each of the four age groups of women, and separately among men. The results are based on annual averages from Gallup’s telephone surveys, typically including 12,000 or more interviews with U.S. adults each year and at least 500 adults in each subgroup by gender and age.
The analysis focuses on people in each age group at the time of the survey rather than following each age cohort over time. This helps answer questions such as: “How do the opinions of women aged 18 to 29 today compare to those of women of the same age ten or twenty years ago?”
Liberal ID cards increased most among young and older women
Women across all age groups became more likely to identify as liberal between 1999 and 2021 before retreating slightly from that position since then. But the largest increases in liberal ID occurred among women at both ends of the age range.
From 1999 to 2013, about three in ten women aged 18 to 29 consistently identified as liberal, after which that figure rose (somewhat unsteadily) to 44% in 2020. The percentage of liberals fell slightly to reaching 41% in 2022 and 40% in 2023. The 11-point increase in young women’s liberal identification since 1999 has made what was already the most liberal subgroup of women even more liberal.
Fourteen percent of women ages 65 and older identified as liberal in 1999, but that rose to 21 percent in 2013 and 25 percent in 2023, also an 11-point increase overall. In 1999, older women represented the least liberal female age group, whereas today they are as likely as middle-aged women to identify as liberal.
In contrast, liberal identification increased only six points between 1999 and 2023 among women aged 30 to 49, from 22% to 28% (after a decline from a peak of 36% in 2018). The overall increase was a similar seven points among those aged 50 to 64, from 18% in 1999 to 25% in 2023.
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Men’s liberal ideology is stable in comparison
The tendency for men to describe themselves as politically liberal appears relatively stable compared to that of women, but liberal identity increased slightly among two age groups of men.
There has been a five-point increase since 1999 in the percentage of men aged 30 to 49 identifying as liberal, from 17% to 22%, and a six-point increase, from 12% to 18%. , in men aged 65 and over. . At the same time, there has been virtually no long-term change among men aged 18 to 29 (up one point since 1999) or 50 to 64 (up two points) .
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Today, fewer men in each age group identify as liberal than their female counterparts, but at 15 points, the gap is widest among 18- to 29-year-olds (40 percent of women versus 25 percent). men). This contrasts with a six-point difference between women and men aged 30-49 (28% versus 22%, respectively), a nine-point difference between those aged 50-64 (25% versus 16%). and a seven-point difference for those aged 65 and over (25% versus 18%).
Full ideological trends for each age group among men and women are shown below.
Ideology among adults aged 18 to 29, by gender
From 1999 to 2016, women ages 18 to 29 were most likely to identify as politically moderate, although the percentage identifying as liberal gradually increased. Between 2017 and 2019, the groups were roughly equally represented among young women, after which the liberal share became the majority.
Conservatism has declined most among women in their 20s since around 2012. However, after hitting an all-time low of 16% in 2020 and 2021, the share of this group identifying as conservative has climbed back to 21%. This still represents a decline in conservatism among young women over the long term, as their liberal identity has broadened.
Moving to men ages 18 to 29, this group has historically been most likely to identify as politically moderate. In contrast, about three in ten people, on average, consider themselves conservative and about a quarter consider themselves liberal. In 2023, the numbers were 44% for moderates, 29% for conservatives, and 25% for liberals.
View trends for men and women by clicking on each label at the top of the table below.
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Ideology among adults aged 30 to 49, by gender
Women ages 30 to 49 have historically identified as politically moderate more than anything else, but since 1999 the percentage identifying as conservative has declined slightly while the percentage liberal has increased. However, these trends peaked in 2018 and have since declined slightly. Today, 40% of women aged 30 to 49 describe their political views as moderate, a figure similar to 43% of women in this age group in 1999. At the same time, the percentage of conservatives is five points lower today, at 30%. and the percentage of liberals is six points higher, at 28%.
Men aged 30 to 49 have, over time, shown the most affinity for conservative and moderate labels, and to roughly equal extent, while a smaller segment identified as liberal . However, the liberal share of men aged 30 to 49 is five points higher today than in 1999, while the moderate and conservative percentages have each declined slightly.
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Ideology among adults aged 50 to 64, by sex
Most women aged 50 to 64 over the past 25 years define themselves as conservative or moderate, while fewer define themselves as liberal. However, the proportions of conservatives and moderates declined slightly as the percentage of liberals increased. Liberalism was highest among women aged 50 to 64 in 2018, where it reached 28%. Today, 25% of this age group describe themselves as liberal.
Men aged 50 to 64 have been predominantly conservative over time, but never at the majority level. Moderates consistently rank second in this group, while liberals occupy a much lower third place.
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Ideology among adults aged 65 and over, by sex
Liberal identification has increased significantly over the past quarter century among women aged 65 and older; Nonetheless, this has been and continues to be the most conservative age group of women, with 40% identifying as such today. This contrasts with 37% of their female counterparts aged 50 to 64, 30% of those aged 30 to 49 and 21% of those aged 18 to 29.
The 12-point increase in liberalism among older women in 1999 compared to today occurred while the percentage identifying themselves as moderate declined by almost the same amount. The percentage of conservatives varied between 40% and 46%.
The trend in political ideology is similar among older men, with the percentage of liberals increasing since 1999 and the percentage of moderates decreasing, while the dominant conservative category has generally remained near 50 percent.
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Conclusion
Contrary to American Party ID Card, which has moved from years of strong Democratic advantages to years of partisan parity or slight Republican advances, their political ideology has been more consistent. Since Gallup’s regular assessment of ideology began in 1992, the largest segments have been conservatives and moderates, while liberals have been the smallest group. However, in this context, the increase in the percentage identifying as liberal, from 17% in 1992 to 25% today, is notable.
Ideological change by age group within each gender shows that this increased liberalism is largely the result of stronger-than-average pro-liberal shifts among women aged 18 to 29 and women aged 65 and more. The first represents fundamental differences in the belief systems of women entering adulthood in the last decade compared to previous decades. In contrast, the change among older women may be more related to generational replacement, with middle-aged women bringing their slightly more liberal attitudes into their golden years.
Meanwhile, men’s politics have either become slightly more liberal (as seen among those aged 30-49 and those aged 65 and over) or have not changed (as seen among adults aged 18-29 and from 50 to 64 years old).
Thus, the widening ideological gaps between men and women over time are due to women becoming more liberal at a faster rate than men, rather than to women and men moving in different directions different ideological ones.
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