Issues Important

To Today's Youth

A comprehensive national survey just released by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics and reported by The New York Times (4/29/2012) asked respondents ages 18 to 29 to choose between pairings of issues (see charts below) to determine which ones they felt were more important.

Among domestic issues, creating jobs almost always won out among key issues. Affordable health care was not too far behind. Of the respondents:

65 percent say they are registered to vote
37 percent consider themselves Democrats
24 percent Republicans
38 percent Independents
10 percent are supporters of the Tea Party
17 percent are supporters of Occupy Wall Street movement

Although 95 percent said that religion plays either a very (68%) or somewhat (27%) important part in their lives, 73% disagreed that religious values should play a more important role in government.

From an ideological perspective, 30 percent say they are liberal, 40 percent conservative, with 29 percent saying they are moderate. However, 45 percent say they will support President Obama for re-election against Mitt Romney (23%), with 33 percent undecided.

Dissatisfaction and disillusionment with politics in the United States continues to grow in today's youth along with feelings that Republicans and Democrats are unable to work together to meet the nation's needs.

The following Domestic and Foreign charts take a bit of study, but they are an indicator of the issues that today's youth and young voters think are important.

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