After the Election, Young Americans are Choosing Sides
Young People are Less Likely to be Undecided across Issues
Did you miss Part Two? Check it out.
Between April 2016 and February 2017 young people’s party affiliation and opinion formation on social/political issues increased significantly. While 25% of young Americans were politically unaffiliated as recently as April 2016, only 14% report being so now. Such increases in affiliation are normal in election years.
Notable among young people this election cycle is how much of the increase went to third-parties. Third-party affiliation increased 6 percentage points, while Democratic affiliation increased just over three points. Republican affiliation remained little changed, with under a 2 percentage point increase.
In addition to increased party affiliation, young Americans became more opinionated between April 2016 and February 2017: on 9 out of 10 political/social issues our survey covered in both 2016 and 2017, the number of young people reporting no opinion decreased.
Alignment with feminism, perceptions of sexual assault and opinions on undocumented immigration — all issues prevalent during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign — had the largest increases in opinion formation.
Across all 10 issues, the net agree (agree minus disagree) increased, with youth opinions moving generally left. The largest net increase in support from young people was for offering undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship: from +19 in April 2016 to +45 (65% agree vs 29% disagree) in February 2017.
The largest net increase in support from young people was for offering undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship.
Other shifts correspond with prevalent ballot initiatives in November. On both marijuana (legalization was on the ballot in 9 states) and minimum wage (on the ballot in 4 states and several cities), opinions among young people shifted: net support for legalization increased 19 points and satisfaction with their local minimum wage improved 22 points.
For many issues, the change in opinion formation corresponded almost one-to-one with increased agreement. For example, one-third of those who previously had no opinion on feminism have come to identify as feminists themselves.
Research & Editorial Team
Jeff Bladt, Chief Data Officer, DoSomething.org
Nick McCormick, Data and Survey Research Analyst, DoSomething.org
Keri Goff, Creative Director, DoSomething.org
Meredith Ferguson, Managing Director, TMI Strategy
2017 Polling Methodology:
The survey was distributed to individuals ages 13–25 across the United States and its outlying territories. The final sample includes 581 observations. Results presented here are reported post-weighting, meaning that the opinions and actions of 13-year-old females are just as well represented as those of 25-year-old males. Assuming a population size of approximately 45,000,000 13–25 year olds nationwide, a sample size of 581 at a 95% confidence level allows for a 4.07% margin of error.
2016 Polling Methodology:
The survey was distributed to individuals ages 13–25 across the United States and its outlying territories. Prior to analysis, the data was cleaned and weighted as follows:
• Individuals with completion times of under 5 minutes were excluded from the results.
• Individuals younger than 13 years of age or older than 25 years of age were excluded from the results.
• Weights were applied to create equal representations across gender and age.
The final sample includes 3,305 observations. Results presented here are reported post-weighting, meaning that the opinions and actions of 13-year-old females are just as well represented as those of 25-year-old males. Assuming a population size of approximately 45,000,000 13–25 year olds nationwide, a sample size of 3,305 at a 95% confidence level allows for a 1.7% margin of error.
About DoSomething.org
DoSomething.org is the largest tech company exclusively for young people and social change. We’re activating 5.5 million young people (and counting!) to make positive change, online and off, in every US area code and in over 131 countries. When you join DoSomething, you join something bigger than yourself. You team up with the young people who have clothed half of America’s youth in homeless shelters. And cleaned up 3.7 million cigarette butts from the streets. And run the largest youth-led sports equipment drive in the world. And more! You’ve got the power and the passion to make an impact — we’ll help you get it done. Welcome to DoSomething. Let’s Do This.
About TMI Strategy
TMI is a strategy consultancy that uncovers insights about young people to develop creative solutions that drive social change. Fueled by DoSomething.org’s proprietary data from millions of young people involved in hundreds of cause initiatives, we uncover what motivates young people to connect with companies and causes they care about. Not your typical agency, every project TMI takes on has positive impact on people, the planet, or both — and 100% of TMI’s profits support DoSomething.org. For more information, visit tmistrategy.org.
