Growing share of college grads are consistently liberal % with political values that are on Consiste untly Lib Mostly Lib Mixed Mostly Cons Consiste intly Cons
Beyond the shifts in vote preference and party identification, highly educated adults also increasingly have liberal attitudes and values, while there has been less change among those without a college degree.
A recent Pew Research Center analysis found that in 2015, nearly half of college graduates (48%) held either consistently liberal (26%) or mostly liberal (21%) opinions about the role and performance of government, social issues, the environment and other topics.
By comparison, just 31% of those with less education had consistently (8%) or mostly (22%) liberal views.
Over the past two decades, there has been particularly sharp growth in the share of highly educated adults with consistently liberal attitudes – from 6% in 1994 to 16% in 2004 to 26% in 2015. Among adults with no college degree, just 8% had consistently liberal attitudes in 2015, up from 2% in 1994.
Growing share of college grads are consistently liberal  | % with political values that are on  | Consiste untly Lib Mostly Lib Mixed Mostly Cons Consiste intly Cons  | Some college or less  | College graduate or more  | 9  | 10  | 16  | 15  | 24  | 21  | 18  | 17  | 36  | 25  | 53  | 42  | 43  | 51  | 21  | 30  | 22  | 22  | 23  | 26  | 17  | 16  | 8  | F  | a  | 1994 2004 2015  | 1994 2004 2015  | Note: Ideological consistency based 27-0ct on a scaleof 2015 (N=6, 10 politica values questions.  | Source Ideological Survey conducted consistency Aug based 27-0ct a 4. scaleof 2015 (N=6, politica 004).  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 