What groups like Trump? Give us your ideas!
Welcome to YouGov's weekly newsletter The Surveyor, with new polling data, insights, and charts on politics, life, and other topical issues — from our U.S. News team.
This week, we're seeking your input, and spotlighting surveys about Donald Trump, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, tattoos, vaccines, the Democratic and Republican parties, porn, seatbelts, and whether Donald Trump should be the next pope.
Audience participation
Want to get your suggestions into a YouGov poll? Read on for how that can happen!
One of the most basic things pollsters such as YouGov do is called "crosstabs." That's when we take the responses to one of our survey questions, and show not just the overall result (the "topline") but also results for one or more subgroups.
For example, it's very common for pollsters to show results by political party, gender, or age:
We also often dive deeper, looking at combinations of different crosstabs. Here, for example, are approval numbers for Trump among men and women within each age group:
But those sort of basic demographic crosstabs only scratch the surface. Here at YouGov, we're constantly polling on all sorts of topics — and any of them can be used as a crosstab.
For example, here's approval of Trump split by three somewhat random questions I pulled from recent non-political YouGov surveys:
The less romantic someone is or the less fulfilling someone finds their job, the more likely they are to disapprove of Donald Trump! Meanwhile there's not a lot of difference in Trump approval based on how often people use AI tools — except among people who use them regularly but not constantly. They're more anti-Trump than average.
Some of the findings for any one question might reflect underlying demographic differences. For instance, people who say they are more romantic are also more likely to be married and to pray more often — both groups that are more pro-Trump than average. Just because a crosstab is correlated with a particular response does not mean it causes that response.
Now, here's where you come in:
Give us your ideas for crosstabs!
In the comments of this post, please leave your suggestions for what questions or topics you're interested in seeing Trump support crosstabbed by! We plan to take some of those ideas, run new polls if necessary, and then share the results in a future issue of The Surveyor.
Some general guidelines:
The questions themselves should be fair, not leading
To work as a crosstab, a group needs to represent a significant portion of U.S. adult citizens. If a group is less than 10% of the population, we probably won't have a big enough sample size to break out that group's opinions
You can suggest oddball questions (such as how often people eat ice cream, or whether they've read Pride and Prejudice), or unusual slices of more standard demographic data (such as frequency of prayer by age)
Be as general or as specific as you like in your ideas; we'll workshop them if necessary to get them into the right wording for a poll.
We look forward to seeing — and polling — your ideas!
Charting opinions
What do Americans believe about Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
A new survey shows that while three-quarters of Americans (73%) have heard about the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, beliefs about the details of his circumstances vary widely. Also, 26% believe his deportation was justified, while 45% think it was unjustified; 29% are unsure.
For many facts about Garcia, few Americans have both heard of his case and know the truth. Most people are aware that Garcia is being detained in a prison in El Salvador (61% say this is true). 42% say he was deported due to an administrative error — a claim initially made by the Trump administration — and 34% believe it is true that he was legally allowed to live in the U.S. at the time of his deportation. Only 17% believe he has been given due process. (Taylor Orth)
How do Democrats and Republicans want their parties to change their approach?
Democrats are especially likely to say their party isn't doing enough, in countering opposition messaging, winning elections, attracting new members, and touting its achievements. Republicans are somewhat more satisfied with how their party balances its efforts, though many would like to see more effort in cost-of-living issues and candidate recruitment. (Taylor Orth)
Americans have become more favorable toward tattoos in the past decade
24% of Americans say they currently have a tattoo. Women (30%) are more likely than men (19%) to say they currently have a tattoo. They’re also far more likely than men to have other body modifications, including ear piercings (71% vs. 11%), hair dyed a natural color (37% vs. 7%), and body piercings (10% vs. 3%). (Jamie Ballard)
What Americans think of childhood vaccinations
Two-thirds (66%) of Americans believe that vaccines do work to reduce the chance that a person will get a disease. Majorities of Democrats (88%) and Republicans (57%) share this belief. 64% of Americans — including 87% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans — say their view on childhood vaccines for diseases such as measles, mumps, and whooping cough is better captured by the statement, “The science supporting the safety of childhood vaccines is well established,” rather than “The safety of childhood vaccines is an issue requiring further debate.” 21% say the latter comes closer to their view. (Jamie Ballard)
Quick takes
Adult verification: 57% of Americans support their state requiring age verification to access online pornography
Toys: 63% of Americans say few (47%) or essentially no (15%) toys are made in the U.S.; 13% say most (9%) or all (4%) are
Seat belts: 51% of Americans say it's the responsibility of drivers to make sure their adult passengers have fastened their seat belts, while 38% say it's the passengers' responsibility, and 8% say it isn't important that everyone have their seat belt fastened
Chatbots: 46% of Americans say people should be polite to AI chatbots, while 26% say they shouldn't be
Pope Trump: 6% of Americans say Donald Trump should be the next pope
Elsewhere
Polling partnerships
CBS News + YouGov on tariffs and Trump's first 100 days
Yahoo News + YouGov on Trump's first 100 days, tariffs, elite universities, the birth rate
The Times + YouGov on Trump's handling of the economy and a third Trump term
The Economist + YouGov on Trump's job approval, the economy, U.S. democracy, and Catholic doctrine
Polling abroad
Where do Britons see politicians, parties and themselves on the left-right spectrum? (YouGov UK)
How YouGov's seat projection fared at the 2025 Canadian federal election (YouGov Canada)
Polling in the press
America gave Trump another chance. He’s blowing it. (Washington Post)
Canadians go to the polls amid backdrop of Trump tariffs, rhetoric (The Hill)
30 percent expect household finances to be better next year: Survey (The Hill)
Addicted to subtitles you don’t really need? Netflix hears you. (Washington Post)
Karen Read's retrial and the ethics of true crime (Boston Globe)
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This newsletter is compiled by David Montgomery and Carl Bialik
"We are going to ask you four moral questions in which you have to make choices. These questions have no right or wrong answer. You just choose whatever you personally think is right — what you would choose in real life if faced with this scenario. If you prefer not to answer, select the arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen.
For the following questions, imagine a situation involving two boats. Both of these boats are sinking. Unfortunately, no one on either of the boats is able to swim. But you can choose one boat to save. Once you choose a boat, everyone on that boat will be safe. Occupants of the other boat will not be saved. In the following scenario, which would you save?" [scenarios are your closest pet vs. 1, 10, 50, or 100 people.]
I’m interested in a crosstab not only by religion, but how confident people are that God/Gods exist. Question wording something similar to “How confident would you say you are that God exists?” [extremely/certain, very, somewhat, not very, not at all]. Might need to adjust the wording to be inclusive of other religions. My guess is that this may be more predictive than just asking affiliation.