Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to view the Democratic Party as very liberal. And the pattern is similar, though less pronounced, in views of the GOP’s ideology: More Democrats than Republicans see the Republican Party as very conservative.

When asked to evaluate the Democratic Party’s ideology, a majority of Republicans (55%) give the Democratic Party the most liberal rating possible on an 11-point scale (where 0 is very liberal and 10 is very conservative). The share of Republicans who give the Democratic Party this ideological  rating has increased 10 percentage points, from 45%, since 2016.

About a third of Democrats (35%) give the GOP the most conservative rating possible – which is far lower than the share of Republicans who place the Democratic Party at the most liberal point on the scale. Nonetheless, Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to rate the GOP’s ideology as very conservative.

The national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted July 30 to Aug. 12 among 4,581 adults, finds that Republicans give the GOP an ideological rating of 7.1 on the scale. Democrats rate their party closer to the middle of the ideological scale (where 5 is the midpoint); on average, Democrats give their own party a rating of 3.9.

Republicans’ views of their own party’s ideology – as well as the ideology of the Democratic Party – have changed since 2016. On average, Republicans now place the Republican Party further to the right on the ideological spectrum than they did two years ago. And on average, Republicans see the Democratic Party as further to the left than they did in 2016. There has been less change in Democrats’ ratings of the ideologies of both parties since then.

Overall, Americans place themselves close to the midpoint on the ideological scale, with an average rating of 5.2. More than half (53%) rate their own ideology between 3 and 7 on the scale, including about one-in-five (22%) rate themselves at exactly 5.

Republicans’ and Democrats’ ratings of their own ideologies are similar to ratings they give their parties. Republicans, on average, give themselves a 7.4 rating and rate the Republican Party 7.1. The average self-rating among Democrats is 3.7 on the scale and their rating of the Democratic Party is 3.9.

The 11-point ideological scale results in a somewhat different picture of the public’s ideological leanings than a commonly used survey measure that asks whether people describe their political views as very conservative, conservative, moderate, liberal or very liberal.

Young people less likely than older adults to rate their views as ‘very conservative’

Overall, 25% of the public place themselves at the most conservative end of the ideological spectrum (a rating between 8 and 10); 16% rate their own ideology as a 6 or a 7, while about one-in-five (22%) place themselves at the midpoint on the scale.

On the left side of the scale, 16% give themselves a rating of 3 or 4; another 21% place themselves at the most liberal end of the scale (between 0 and 2).

There are age and educational differences in how people rate their own ideology. Among adults under 50, more place their ideology at the liberal (23%) than conservative (17%) end of the scale. Among those 50 and older the ideological balance is reversed: 34% use one of the most conservative points to describe their ideology, while 19% use one of the most liberal points.

Adults with postgraduate degrees are more likely to rate their ideology as very liberal (34%) than very conservative (16%). By contrast, more of those with no college experience rate their ideology as very conservative (32%) than very liberal (14%).

How partisan leaners view the parties’ ideologies

While a 55% majority of Republicans rate the Democratic Party at the most liberal point on the ideological scale, independents who lean toward the Republican Party are less likely to view the Democratic Party as this ideological; 39% rate the Democratic Party at the most liberal point.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have similar ratings of the Democratic Party’s ideology.

Those who identify as Republicans are more likely than GOP leaners to view the Republican Party as conservative. While identical 11% shares of both groups give the GOP the most conservative rating of 10, Republicans on average are more likely to give the GOP a conservative score of 6 through 9 than are independents who lean Republican.

There is little difference between Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents in views of the Republican Party’s ideology.

The American Trends Panel (ATP), created by the Pew Research Center, is a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults recruited from landline and cell phone random digit dial surveys. Panelists participate via monthly self-administered Web surveys. Panelists who do not have internet access are provided with a tablet and wireless internet connection. The panel is being managed by GfK.

Data in this report are drawn from the panel wave conducted July 30-August 12, 2018 among 4,581 respondents. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 4,581 respondents is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

Members of the American Trends Panel were recruited from several large, national landline and cellphone random digit dial (RDD) surveys conducted in English and Spanish. At the end of each survey, respondents were invited to join the panel. The first group of panelists was recruited from the 2014 Political Polarization and Typology Survey, conducted January 23 to March 16, 2014. Of the 10,013 adults interviewed, 9,809 were invited to take part in the panel and a total of 5,338 agreed to participate.¹ The second group of panelists was recruited from the 2015 Pew Research Center Survey on Government, conducted August 27 to October 4, 2015. Of the 6,004 adults interviewed, all were invited to join the panel, and 2,976 agreed to participate.² The third group of panelists was recruited from a survey conducted April 25 to June 4, 2017. Of the 5,012 adults interviewed in the survey or pretest, 3,905 were invited to take part in the panel and a total of 1,628 agreed to participate.³

The ATP data were weighted in a multi-step process that begins with a base weight incorporating the respondents’ original survey selection probability and the fact that in 2014 some panelists were subsampled for invitation to the panel. Next, an adjustment was made for the fact that the propensity to join the panel and remain an active panelist varied across different groups in the sample. The final step in the weighting uses an iterative technique that aligns the sample to population benchmarks on a number of dimensions. Gender, age, education, race, Hispanic origin and region parameters come from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey. The county-level population density parameter (deciles) comes from the 2010 U.S. Decennial Census. The telephone service benchmark comes from the July-December 2016 National Health Interview Survey and is projected to 2017. The volunteerism benchmark comes from the 2015 Current Population Survey Volunteer Supplement. The party affiliation benchmark is the average of the three most recent Pew Research Center general public telephone surveys. The internet access benchmark comes from the 2017 ATP Panel Refresh Survey. Respondents who did not previously have internet access are treated as not having internet access for weighting purposes. Sampling errors and statistical tests of significance take into account the effect of weighting. Interviews are conducted in both English and Spanish, but the Hispanic sample in the American Trends Panel is predominantly native born and English speaking.

The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for different groups in the survey:

Sample sizes and sampling errors for other subgroups are available upon request.

In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

The July 2018 wave had a response rate of 84% (4,581 responses among 5,475 individuals in the panel). Taking account of the combined, weighted response rate for the recruitment surveys (10.1%) and attrition from panel members who were removed at their request or for inactivity, the cumulative response rate for the wave is 2.4%.⁴

© Pew Research Center, 2018