Population News Strategy – Research
PMC works with Roper to Conduct a Nationwide Poll on “U.S. Attitudes on Population”
Our planet faces unprecedented challenges, including climate change, food and water shortages, and a severe energy crisis. But while the urgency of addressing these issues is undisputed, many people in the United States fail to understand how overpopulation aggravates these problems. A nationwide Roper Poll commissioned by Population Media Center in 2008 found that the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of the U.S. public on the issue of population are ambivalent or even contradictory.
A nationally representative sample of 1,011 U.S. residents age 18 and over participated in the survey, which found that people in the United States are split when it comes to the impact of population growth on the environment. For example, just over half of survey respondents believe that there is a strong link between a growing global population and climate change. Similarly, respondents are divided about whether population growth will impact the availability of resources for their children in the future.
While the survey data showed a divide in U.S. attitudes about the issue of population, the data also showed that young people (age 18–24) are ahead of their elders in recognizing the pressure population growth puts on the environment and resources. For example, 60 percent of 18–24-year-olds understand that there is a strong link between a growing global population and climate change, compared with only 40 percent of people over the age of 65. And 75 percent of these young people agree, at a significantly higher level than all other age brackets, that population growth is causing an increased demand for energy and contributing to increases in oil and gas prices.
