Table 1.
Political belief frequencies and relative frequencies by sex, race/ethnicity, and parental education among 12th-graders from 2005 to 2018.
| Totala | Political Beliefs | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Liberal | Moderate | Radical | Unsurec | ||||||||
| Sex | N = 86,138b | 15,348 | (18.1) | 17,999 | (19.8) | 20,675 | (23.9) | 1434 | (1.7) | 30,682 | (36.6) | |
| Female | 44,534 | (51.7) | 6645 | (15.3) | 10,308 | (22.0) | 10,234 | (22.9) | 394 | (0.9) | 16,953 | (39.0) |
| Male | 41,604 | (48.3) | 8703 | (21.1) | 7691 | (17.5) | 10,441 | (24.9) | 1040 | (2.5) | 13,729 | (33.9) |
| Race/ethnicity d | ||||||||||||
| Black | 9513 | (11.0) | 1241 | (13.2) | 1620 | (16.1) | 2327 | (24.4) | 167 | (1.8) | 4158 | (44.4) |
| Female | 5248 | (55.4) | 591 | (11.4) | 889 | (16.3) | 1267 | (23.9) | 56 | (1.0) | 2445 | (47.4) |
| Male | 4265 | (44.6) | 650 | (15.5) | 731 | (15.9) | 1060 | (24.9) | 111 | (3.0) | 1713 | (40.7) |
| White | 51,248 | (59.9) | 11,312 | (22.4) | 10,175 | (18.7) | 12,667 | (24.6) | 783 | (1.5) | 16,311 | (32.8) |
| Female | 25,826 | (50.4) | 4747 | (18.9) | 5767 | (21.1) | 6167 | (23.7) | 181 | (0.7) | 8964 | (35.7) |
| Male | 25,422 | (49.6) | 6565 | (26.0) | 4408 | (16.3) | 6500 | (25.4) | 602 | (2.3) | 7347 | (30.0) |
| Hispanic | 13,118 | (15.3) | 1289 | (9.8) | 3201 | (23.4) | 2739 | (21.1) | 230 | (1.8) | 5659 | (43.9) |
| Female | 6968 | (53.1) | 626 | (9.0) | 1841 | (25.4) | 1353 | (19.8) | 76 | (1.2) | 3072 | (44.7) |
| Male | 6150 | (46.9) | 663 | (10.8) | 1360 | (21.2) | 1386 | (22.6) | 154 | (2.5) | 2587 | (42.9) |
| Parental Education e | ||||||||||||
| ≥ College degree f | 44,884 | (50.4) | 9451 | (21.6) | 10,448 | (22.0) | 11,442 | (25.4) | 709 | (1.6) | 12,834 | (29.4) |
| Female | 22,447 | (50.0) | 4001 | (18.5) | 5900 | (24.9) | 5445 | (24.4) | 183 | (0.8) | 6918 | (31.4) |
| Male | 22,437 | (50.0) | 5450 | (24.6) | 4548 | (19.1) | 5997 | (26.4) | 526 | (2.4) | 5916 | (27.5) |
| < College degree | 38,501 | (46.2) | 5630 | (14.9) | 7233 | (18.0) | 8833 | (22.9) | 655 | (1.7) | 16,150 | (42.5) |
| Female | 20,896 | (54.0) | 2545 | (12.4) | 4260 | (19.6) | 4615 | (21.8) | 195 | (0.9) | 9281 | (45.3) |
| Male | 17,605 | (46.0) | 3085 | (17.8) | 2973 | (16.2) | 4218 | (24.1) | 460 | (2.7) | 6869 | (39.2) |
Total relative frequencies are column percentages. Political belief relative frequencies are row percentages. Full analytic sample includes respondents with complete information on political beliefs and sex.
a
Frequencies of unweighted sample. Relative frequencies of weighted sample.
b
N reported is unweighted. Weighted N = 86,143.
c
Unsure category represents a “none of the above, or don’t know” response.
d
13.8% missing race/ethnicity response.
e
3.3% missing/unknown parental education response.
f
Respondent reported that at least one parent completed college.