RSS Feed
New Poll: Marriage as Party Indicator
By William Wan
Gallup came out with a new poll today on the relation between marriage and which political party people identify with. Not surprisingly, a higher percentage of married people identified themselves as Republican than Democrats, while on the flip side, a higher percentage of unmarrieds identified themselves as Democrat than Republican.
They've done this poll before (last year on Valentine's day). What's interesting though are the author's notes about how religion plays into it all. His conclusion? It's too tough to tease out:
"Marriage is also associated with religious intensity, including church attendance and importance of religion in one's life. These measures of religion, in turn, are important predictors of party identification. But it is uncertain whether religion, ideology, and party lead to choice of marital status, or whether marital status leads Americans to different ideological, religious, and partisan choices."
In other words, hard to say whether religion leads people to get married, or whether getting married leads people to more a religious mindset. Not sure how people would react to a statement like that, but just thought it's an interesting tidbit to throw out there amid the continuing culture wars around marriage, gay marriage, live-in partnerships, etc.
UPDATE: Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport just sent me some additional numbers that show how church attendance factored into the poll...
The numbers show party ID and marital status are not only related to each other, but church attendance factors into both as well.
Old news first: Republicans overall have higher rate of church attendance (45%) than Democrats (28%).
Now the new stuff from poll--how Republicans & Democrats' faith or lack of faith ties into marital status:
*Almost half (48%) of married Republicans also go to church weekly. The comparable number for married Democrats is significantly lower with 30% going to church.
*Meanwhile, more than half of single Democrats (53%) never go to church. Compare that to single Republican who never go to church (39%).
You can see how there's definite relationship between the three factors--belief, party, marital status--but also why it's tough to draw any conclusions from the numbers alone.
By
William Wan
|
July 13, 2009; 9:39 AM ET
| Category:
God in Government
Share This: 
Technorati
| Del.icio.us | Digg | Facebook
Previous: Pope and President on Abortion |
Next: Anti-Abortion Leader to Testify at Sotomayor Hearing
Posted by: globalone | July 14, 2009 12:23 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Mind you, of course, Republicans also have the highest *divorce* rates as well as rates of getting married... The more churchgoing, the more they do it.
Yes, religious conservatives get married more and expect the *government* to 'protect it,' based on ideology and power, rather than necessarily being circumspect and getting it right in the first place.
No *real* surprises, here. They get married more cause their ideology says marriage is the only excuse to have sex. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | July 13, 2009 2:23 PM
Report Offensive Comment
I can't help but think, a little more than half-seriously, that a much higher percentage of married Democrats than the standard deviation might hang up on such a line of questioning. :)
Of *course* the Republican party, will get some affiliations from people enjoying, or believing they enjoy special financial rights for straight couples who are legally-married in that way which is of course only about 'traditional definitions' ....and no actual real financial and social interests at all.
Posted by: Paganplace | July 13, 2009 2:20 PM
Report Offensive Comment
The findings here aren't very remarkable at all. We already know that the republicans are the U.S. version of the party of god, and the rest follows from that.
What IS interesting however, is that the numbers are relatively close. Only half of married republicans go to church weekly? Hmmm. So perhaps the repub leadership should reconsider their reliance on religion to sell their candidates - not only is their party losing members, but only half of them would seem to care about church-based political positions.
Looks like the people have spoken, and faith has been rejected by a solid majority. Finally, some good news!
Posted by: screwyou | July 13, 2009 12:26 PM
Report Offensive Comment
"They get married more cause their ideology says marriage is the only excuse to have sex"
-- Completely erroneous but mildly funny nonetheless.