Poll: Gap closing between conservative, liberal identifiers

PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 10 (UPI) -- More Americans say they're conservative rather than liberal, but the gap has shrunk to tie its smallest difference since 1992, Gallup said Friday.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents identified themselves as conservatives while 23 percent said they were liberals in 13 Gallup polls conducted in 2013, which is down to a 15 percentage point advantage since 1992, poll results released Friday indicate.

When Gallup began asking about ideological identification in all its polls in 1992, an average 17 percent of those asked said they were liberal while 36 percent said they were conservative.

The rise in liberal identification has been accompanied by a decline in moderate identification, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said. Thirty-four percent identified themselves as moderates in 2013, the lowest Gallup has measured, down 9 percentage points since 1992.

Gallup said moderates had been the largest ideological group during the 1990s, and competed with conservatives for the top spot during the 2000s. Since 2009, conservatives have consistently been the largest U.S. ideological group.

Results are based on aggregated nationwide phone interviews from 13 separate Gallup polls with 18,871 adults conducted in 2013. The margin of error for the total sample is 1 percentage point.