Political polarization among Republicans and Democrats has widened over the last two decades, a new analysis of Gallup poll data finds.
The analysis found that the gap has widened by 30 percentage points, or more, on four issues: Federal government power, human activity’s role in global warming, satisfaction with K-12 education and whether abortion should be legal under any circumstance.
The Gallup poll analysis measures trends and partisan attitudes from 2003 to 2023 and includes a comparison of Democrats, Republicans and independents who lean towards either party.
Twenty years ago, Democrats and Republicans largely agreed on whether the federal government had too much power, with about a third of Americans in each party saying the government had too much power. But this year, the Gallup poll shows a 42-point gap between Republicans and Democrats on the issue, with 73% of Republicans saying the government has too much power and 31% of Democrats saying the same.
The analysis also found that Democrats have become more concerned about global warming over the past two decades compared to Republicans, with the gap between Democrats and Republicans widening by 33 percentage points on whether human activity is the main cause of global warming.
On the topic of global warming, this year 35% of Republicans “worry a great deal or fair amount about global warming,” while 87% of Democrats say the same, according to Gallup’s analysis.
On abortion, Gallup found one of its largest partisan gaps between the two parties. Fifty-nine percent of Democrats said that “abortion should be legal under any circumstance,” and 12% of Republicans said the same.
The partisan gap on satisfaction in education has also widened over the last two decades. Republican satisfaction with K-12 education has dropped 20 percentage points from 2003 to 2022, per Gallup data, down to 30%. Democrats’ views of education remained consistent over the last 20 years with around 50% satisfied with K-12 education that same year.