Gallup: Conservatives Outnumber Liberals in 47 Out of 50 States

February 1, 2013
By Patrick Burke

 President Ronald Reagan (AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) - The percentage of individuals who identify as conservative in 2012 outnumber those who identify as liberal in 47 out of the 50 states, in addition to the District of Columbia (D.C.) according to a Gallup poll released on Feb. 1.Nationally, the amount of self-identified conservatives (38 percent) still outnumbers liberals (23 percent). The disparity between conservatives and liberals has remained consistent since Gallup began its tracking in 2008.

The top three conservative states in the U.S. were Alabama, with 50.6 percent of its citizens identifying as conservative followed by North Dakota and Wyoming, which both had 48.6 percent.
Two states—Massachusetts and Rhode Island—along with the District of Columbia were the only places where there were more self-identified liberals than conservatives.

Although the national gap between conservatives and liberals became smaller, the amount of self-identified conservatives still outnumbers both liberals and moderates.

The geographic layout of political ideology in the U.S. also tended to reflect voting patterns in national elections.

“America has become a slightly more liberal and a slightly less conservative nation than it was in 2011 – based on residents' self-reports of their ideology – but conservatives still outnumber both moderates and liberals,” according to the poll’s summary. “The geographic dispersion of ideology across the states follows what are by now familiar lines of political demarcation.”

Gallup: Conservatives Outnumber Liberals in 47 Out of 50 States | CNS News