A record-high 80 percent of U.S. adults say Americans are “greatly divided” on the most important values, according to a recent Gallup poll.
The survey does not define “most important values” in the question, instead leaving the phrase open to interpretation.
Just 18 percent in the survey, conducted Aug. 1-20, say Americans are “united and in agreement” on the most important values, when asked to say which of the two positions is closest to their view.
For the last two decades, the share of respondents who say Americans are greatly divided on the most important values has steadily increased, while the share who say Americans are united and in agreement has slowly decreased.
Since 2016, when the survey was last conducted, the share of respondents who say Americans are greatly divided has increased by 3 points, from 77 percent to 80 percent. In the prior survey, in 2012, 69 percent said Americans were greatly divided, up from 65 percent who said so in 2004.
Similarly, since the 2016 survey, the share of respondents who say Americans are united and in agreement has decreased by 3 points, from 21 percent to 18 percent. In 2012, 29 percent said Americans were united and in agreement, while 34 percent said the same in 2004.
The steadily widening gap began in 1994, when 55 percent said the country was greatly divided and 39 percent said the country was united and in agreement. In the subsequent survey that Gallup cites, from 1998, 66 percent of respondents said the country was greatly divided and 31 percent said it was united and in agreement.
The nation saw that trend break dramatically after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In November 2001, the share who said Americans were greatly divided plummeted by about 40 points, to 24 percent, while the share who said Americans were united and in agreement more than doubled, to 74 percent. The numbers were similar in 2002, but by 2004, the trends had reverted back to the pre-9/11 numbers.
Over time, Republicans and Democrats have mostly been aligned in their views on whether the country is greatly divided or united. Today, 19 percent of Democrats, 15 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of independents say the country is united and in agreement.
After the 2004 reelection of former President George W. Bush to a second term, Republicans were more likely to say the country was united and in agreement, at 48 percent, than Democrats, at 33 percent.
When former President Trump was elected in 2016, Republicans, at 31 percent, were nearly twice as likely as Democrats, at 16 percent, to say the country was united and in agreement.
Similarly, when former President Obama was reelected in 2012, Democrats, at 36 percent, were twice as likely as Republicans, at 16 percent, to say the country was united and in agreement.
The survey included 1,015 respondents and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.