Survey: Libertarian numbers are small but their social, political clout is growing

Washington A new statistical portrait of libertarians examines their political and cultural views just as a Libertarian Party candidate could make a difference in the upcoming Virginia governors race.

The Public Religion Research Institutes annual American Values Survey, released Tuesday, examines libertarians to try to "pin down a group that doesnt fit on the traditional liberal-to-conservative spectrum," said Robert Jones, CEO of PRRI.

"We were not sure we could find a coherent group that could say they oppose making abortion more difficult and at the same time oppose raising the minimum wage. But we did."

Like their ideological opposites, the Tea Party, which PRRI studied in 2010, libertarians are just 7 percent of U.S. adults. An additional 15 percent of Americans lean toward libertarian views socially liberal, economically conservative while 17 percent of Americans said they leaned toward the Tea Party. Most Americans (54 percent) hold a mixture of views, PRRI found.

(The survey of 2,317 U.S. adults was conducted Sept. 21 to Oct 3, before the Tea Party-endorsed government shutdown.)

PRRI found libertarians are overwhelmingly (94 percent) non-Hispanic white and mostly male (68 percent). Theyre also young. The average age is 44, while the national average is 47; Tea Party folks average slightly older, at 51.

On religion, libertarians tilt to the mainline Protestants (27 percent) and the secular (27 percent say they have no religious identity). Only 11 percent are Catholic, 6 percent identified with a non-Christian faith and 4 percent named another Christian group. (The tally is less than 100 percent due to rounding.)

But libertarians are like the Tea Party adherents (chiefly white evangelicals and Catholics) in one respect: Politically, theyre beginning to punch above their weight.

"There are opportunities for libertarians to play a bigger role in primaries," said Jones, even though only 8 percent of libertarians identify specifically with the Libertarian Party.

Here is the original post:

Survey: Libertarian numbers are small but their social, political clout is growing