32% of Voters Are Both Fiscal and Social Conservatives

In today’s economic climate, few voters consider themselves liberals on fiscal policy issues, but there’s a little more divergence of opinion when it comes to social issues.  

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 47% of Likely U.S. Voters describe themselves as conservative on fiscal issues, while 42% say the same on social issues.

Only seven percent (7%) describe themselves as liberal on fiscal policy issues, but nearly four times as many (26%) say they're liberal on social issues. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Thirty-nine percent (39%) say they’re moderate on fiscal issues, and 29% say the same about social issues.

Overall, nearly one-third (32%) of voters are conservative on both fiscal and social issues, while just six percent (6%) are liberal on both and 16% moderate on both. Fifteen percent (15%) lean in the libertarian direction and say they are conservative on fiscal issues and either moderate or liberal on social issues.

In the fall of 2007, just 24% considered themselves both fiscal and social conservatives while 9% were social and political liberals.

“Looking at the big picture, the number of fiscal conservatives is up six percentage points over the past four years, and the number of fiscal liberals is down five,” noted Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls).  Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 31-February 1, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.