In partnership with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), PRL launched a new quarterly poll measuring Americans’ views on free speech. The first set of data were collected in January 2024. The results reveal partisan differences on views on free speech. Nearly 50% of Democrats (approximately 20 percentage points more than Republicans) think the country is moving toward the right direction on free speech, while nearly 37% (approximately 20 percentage points more than Democrats) of Republicans think freedom of speech is not at all secure in America today.
The National Speech Index is a new quarterly component of America’s Political Pulse, an ongoing weekly survey conducted by the Polarization Research Lab, which will allow researchers to track shifting free speech sentiment in America over time. Each week, a sample of 1,000 individual YouGov panelists is surveyed on partisan animosity in the United States. All data and results presented are weighted to nationally representative demographic targets. The raw data file is available here.