What do Americans actually believe, and how much do we get wrong by guessing?

Human beings are untidy creatures and statistics have the courtesy to reflect it.-- YNOT!

What do Americans actually believe, and why are we all so sure about people we’ve never counted? You may be surprised… keep reading and see if you can guess the numbers before you read the answer..

That is one of the great modern talents: taking a loud minority, a television commercial, a college campus, a protest sign, a church sermon, a TikTok clip, or a guy yelling in a pickup truck, and then calling it “America.” We do this every day. We see five strange people online and decide the nation has lost its mind. We see one polished ad and decide everybody is gay, vegan, rich, confused, trans, communist, racist, religious, atheist, armed, unarmed, electric, flat-earth, or halfway to Mars. In this country, a microphone has become more persuasive than a headcount.

But numbers are rude that way. They do not care about our feelings, our tribes, or the stories we tell at dinner to sound informed. They just sit there like an old farmer at the end of the table, chewing slowly and ruining everybody’s argument. And once you start looking at the actual percentages of what Americans are, believe, own, fear, vote for, pray to, smoke, deny, suspect, and misunderstand, you discover something awkward: this country is not nearly as simple as its loudest people keep claiming. It is less tidy, less dramatic, and a whole lot more human.

So what is the lesson in all this? Not that Americans are ignorant, crazy, noble, wicked, or uniquely confused. The real lesson is simpler and more embarrassing: most of us build our picture of the country by staring at the edges and pretending we have seen the middle. We mistake attention for importance, noise for numbers, and fashion for fact. Then we act shocked when the math refuses to cooperate.

America is still what it has always been — a giant, messy argument carried on by millions of people who do not fit neatly into the little boxes built for them by politics, media, and vanity. The truth is usually less flattering than the slogan and more interesting than the stereotype. And that may be the hardest thing for modern people to accept: the country is not made of caricatures. It is made of people. Which means the numbers do not just reveal who Americans are. They also reveal how often the rest of us enjoy being wrong.

Most of what we “know” about Americans is really just a loud argument between commercials, social media, and cable news. One honest warning before the parade starts: some numbers are for U.S. adults, some for households, some for families, and some are survey responses rather than census counts.

1) Who Americans are: population and identity

1. Under age 5 — 5.5%. (Census.gov)
2. Under age 18 — 21.5%. (Census.gov)
3. Age 65 and older — 18.0%. (Census.gov)
4. Female — 50.5%. (Census.gov)
5. White alone — 74.8%. (Census.gov)
6. White alone, not Hispanic or Latino — 57.5%. (Census.gov)
7. Black alone — 13.7%. (Census.gov)
8. American Indian or Alaska Native alone — 1.4%. (Census.gov)
9. Asian alone — 6.7%. (Census.gov)
10. Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander alone — 0.3%. (Census.gov)
11. Two or more races — 3.1%. (Census.gov)
12. Hispanic or Latino — 20.0%. (Census.gov)
13. Foreign-born — 14.1%. (Census.gov)
14. Speak a language other than English at home — 22.3%. (Census.gov)
15. Households with a computer — 95.5%. (Census.gov)
16. Households with broadband internet — 91.0%. (Census.gov)
17. High school graduate or higher, age 25+ — 89.6%. (Census.gov)
18. Bachelor’s degree or higher, age 25+ — 35.7%. (Census.gov)
19. Have a disability, under age 65 — 9.3%. (Census.gov)
20. Uninsured, under age 65 — 9.6%. (Census.gov)

2) Religion and worldview

21. Christian — 62% of U.S. adults. (Pew Research Center)
22. Catholic — 19%. (Pew Research Center)
23. Religiously unaffiliated — 29%. (Pew Research Center)
24. Atheist — 5%. (Pew Research Center)
25. Agnostic — 6%. (Pew Research Center)
26. Belong to religions other than Christianity — 7%. (Pew Research Center)
27. Believe in God or a universal spirit — 83%. (Pew Research Center)
28. Believe there is something spiritual beyond the natural world — 79%. (Pew Research Center)
29. Believe humans have a soul or spirit beyond the body — 86%. (Pew Research Center)
30. Believe in heaven — 67%. (Pew Research Center)
31. Believe in hell — 55%. (Pew Research Center)
32. Pray at least once a day — 44%. (Pew Research Center)
33. Take part in religious services at least monthly in person, online, or on TV — 40%. (Pew Research Center)
34. Say science and religion are mostly in conflict — 50%. (Pew Research Center)
35. Say science and religion are mostly compatible — 47%. (Pew Research Center)

3) Politics, ideology, and culture-war furniture

36. Conservative or very conservative — 37%. (Gallup.com)
37. Moderate — 34%. (Gallup.com)
38. Liberal or very liberal — 25%. (Gallup.com)
39. Identify as independents — 45%. (Gallup.com)
40. Identify as Democrats — 27%. (Gallup.com)
41. Identify as Republicans — 27%. (Gallup.com)
42. Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents — 47%. (Gallup.com)
43. View capitalism positively — 54%. (Gallup.com)
44. View socialism positively — 39%. (Gallup.com)
45. View communism favorably — 14%. (Cato Institute)
46. Identify as LGBTQ+ — 9%. (Gallup.com)
47. Support legal same-sex marriage — 71%. (Gallup.com)
48. Favor stricter gun laws — 56%. (Gallup.com)
49. Report having a gun in the home — 42%. (Gallup.com)
50. Say marijuana should be legal — 64%. (Gallup.com)
51. Say they smoke marijuana — 15%. (Gallup.com)
52. Say abortion should be legal in all circumstances — 30%. (Gallup.com)
53. Say abortion should be legal only in certain circumstances — 55%. (Gallup.com)
54. Say abortion should be illegal in all circumstances — 13%. (Gallup.com)
55. Favor the death penalty for convicted murderers — 52%. (Gallup.com)

4) Home, family, education, and civics

56. Adults age 15+ who have never been married — 34%. (Census.gov)
57. Families with their own children under 18 in the household — 39%. (Census.gov)
58. U.S. households that are married-couple households — 47%. (Census.gov)
59. Average persons per household — 2.53. (Census.gov)
60. Living in the same house as a year ago — 87.7%. (Census.gov)
61. Owner-occupied housing units — 65.2%. (Census.gov)
62. In the civilian labor force, age 16+ — 63.0%. (Census.gov)
63. Women in the civilian labor force, age 16+ — 58.8%. (Census.gov)
64. Can name all three branches of government — 70%. (Annenberg Public Policy Center)
65. Can name freedom of speech as a First Amendment right — 79%. (Annenberg Public Policy Center)

5) Tech, media, and transportation

66. Own a cellphone of some kind — 98%. (Pew Research Center)
67. Own a smartphone — 91%. (Pew Research Center)
68. Are “smartphone-only” internet users — 16%. (Pew Research Center)
69. Use YouTube — 84% of U.S. adults. (Pew Research Center)
70. Use Facebook — 71%. (Pew Research Center)
71. Use TikTok — 37%. (Pew Research Center)
72. Get news from television at least sometimes — 64%. (Pew Research Center)
73. Say they or someone in their household currently owns an EV — 7%. (EPIC)
74. Would seriously consider buying an EV next — 32%. (Pew Research Center)
75. Would seriously consider buying a hybrid next — 44%. (Pew Research Center)

6) Health and habits

76. Adults who are obese — 40.3%. (CDC)
77. Adults who are severely obese — 9.4%. (CDC)
78. Adults who use cigarettes — 9.9%. (CDC)
79. Adults who use e-cigarettes — 7.0%. (CDC)
80. Adults who drink alcohol — 54%. (Gallup.com)
81. Adults who say moderate drinking is bad for health — 53%. (Gallup.com)
82. Adults ever diagnosed with depression — 19%. (CDC)
83. Adults who regularly feel depression — 5%. (CDC)
84. Adults ever diagnosed with anxiety — 19%. (CDC)
85. Adults who regularly feel anxiety — 12%. (CDC)

7) Conspiracies, aliens, ghosts, and the other attic of the national mind

86. Say the 1969 moon landing was staged — 12%. (YouGov)
87. Say the Earth is flat — 2%. (YouGov)
88. Say they now have doubts that the Earth is round — 5%. (YouGov)
89. Think JFK’s assassination involved a conspiracy — 65%. (Gallup.com)
90. Among those who think JFK was killed in a conspiracy, the federal government is named — 20%. (Gallup.com)
91. Among those who think JFK was killed in a conspiracy, the CIA is named — 16%. (Gallup.com)
92. Believe aliens definitely or probably exist — 56%. (YouGov)
93. Believe aliens have definitely or probably visited Earth — 47%. (YouGov)
94. Believe UFOs are probably alien ships or life forms — 30%. (YouGov)
95. Think the government would hide UFO evidence from the public — 73%. (YouGov)
96. Believe ghosts exist — 38%. (YouGov)
97. Believe demons exist — 43%. (YouGov)
98. Believe psychics exist — 41%. (YouGov)
99. Believe some people have paranormal abilities — 50%. (YouGov)
100. Believe they personally have a paranormal ability — 29%. (YouGov)

A tidy lesson sits underneath all this: Americans are rarely as simple as the slogans about them. The country is not one thing. It is a crowded room full of contradictions, and every loud person in the room is convinced he’s the census.

 

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