A copy of this particular YouGov poll was sent to me by a friend and I found the results rather interesting. Granted, the poll is just slightly dated as the data was collected last year from January 14th to the 20th of 2022. That said, I don't think the results would skew much from this time last year. Indeed, on some issues such as transgenderism, I suspect the public would overestimate the population even more so today.
Let's do a quick test and see how you do on some issues.
1. What percentage of the country is black?
2. What percentage is Hispanic?
3. What percentage of the country is gay?
4. What percentage of the country is transgender?
The answers will likely surprise you. They surprised me on some of the questions, although I think I was generally a lot closer than the average American's estimate. Ready for the answers for the above?
1. 12% of Americans are black, while those polled thought it was 41%.
2. 17% of Americans are Hispanic, while those polled thought it was 39%
3. 3% of the population is gay or lesbian while people estimated it to be 30%.
4. 1% of the population is transgender, while people estimated it to be 21%.
Of course these skewed viewpoints are often exacerbated by our media, entertainment, news sources, and even our sports and politics. I won't bother going into an in-depth dialogue regarding the polling estimated numbers versus the actual numbers. There are a few things that did stick out for me though.
1. Most people polled think 20% (1 out of 5 Americans) have a household income of $1 million or more. The actual number is a fraction of 1%.
2. People thought only 49% owned a house while 65% is that actual number.
3. People said only 66% of Americans own a car, while actually 88% do.
4. People said 33% (1 in 3 Americans) is atheist. In reality only 3% identified as such.
5. People thought 40% of Americans are veterans. The truth is only 6% actually served in the military.
I think most of this poll speaks for itself, but I did find the average American's perception of the truth versus the reality to be quite fascinating. What do you think?
H/T: Carrie
