During the third year of President Joe Biden’s presidency, more younger people are identifying as socially conservative, according to a new poll.
Meanwhile, the number of older Americans who identify as conservative dropped by two points from the previous year.
Gallup released its yearly Values and Beliefs survey Thursday, and some of its findings are surprising.
While much of the country’s culture and politics have shifted to the left in recent years, more people are identifying as conservative than in a decade.
According to the poll, the number of people who identify as socially conservative is at its highest in more than 10 years.
Thirty-eight percent of people polled by Gallup said they are either conservative or very conservative.
The number is the highest since 2012, when 38 percent of Americans also identified as conservative during the final year of former President Barack Obama’s term in the White House.
At the same time, the number of Americans who identified as either liberal or very liberal dropped to 29 percent from 34 percent, where it had remained throughout 2021 and 2022.
When Gallup asked people to identify their political leanings by age, only one age demographic identified as less socially conservative than the previous two years.
Of those 65 and older, 42 percent told Gallup they were socially conservative.
In 2022, that number was 44 percent, while 43 percent of seniors said they were socially conservative in 2021.
Gallup noted, “Since 2021, there have been double-digit increases in conservative social ideology among middle-aged adults — those between the ages of 30 and 64.”
The pollster added, “At the same time, older Americans’ ideology on social issues has been stable, while there has been a modest increase in conservative social ideology among young adults.”
Gallup found that among Americans aged 18-29, 30 percent in this year’s poll said they were socially conservative.
In 2022, 26 percent of young people identified as conservative, while in 2021 that number was only 24 percent – a six-point increase in 24 months.
Surprisingly, 10 percent of Democrats said they identified as socially conservative, while six percent of Republicans said they identified as liberal.
Among all independent voters, 29 percent of them said they identify as socially conservative, while 23 percent of them said they identified as liberal.
Gallup surveyed 1,011 American adults from May 1 to May 24.
The poll reported a margin of error at +/- four points.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.