Family is the most important value to Americans, across nearly every demographic, a new Gallup report found. Other top values include freedom, health, integrity, and faith, according to the report.
Gallup surveyed more than 2,000 adults in April, giving respondents a list of 23 values and asking them to select all that they considered to be important to them. Eighty-two percent selected family, which tied for first place with the values of respect, trustworthiness, and freedom.
Gallup then asked respondents to select the top three values most important to them, finding that 49% of Americans consider family to be the value most important to them. Thirty percent said freedom is the most important, while health and integrity were both indicated by 27% of respondents as their top value. Twenty-six percent said faith was most important to them.
Gallup found that family ranks at the top of the values list for nearly every subgroup (political party, highest completed educational level, age, gender, marital status, and rate of religious service attendance), but those who say they attend religious services weekly consistently ranked faith, rather than family, as their most important value. Seventy-six percent of those who attend a religious service every week say faith is among their top three values, compared with 65% who say the same of family.
Republicans, senior citizens, married people, and women, along with people whose highest education level did not exceed high school, were also more likely to say family is most important to them. Sixty-six percent of Republicans, compared with 40% of Democrats, said that family is among their top values.
Respondents were also split by political party when it came to the value of faith and other top values. Nearly half of Republicans (48%) said faith is among the values most important to them, compared with 11% of Democrats. Gallup also found that Republicans were more likely than Democrats to value freedom, while Democrats were more likely than Republicans to value respect and kindness.
“Americans broadly agree on the importance of values that generally matter in life — but, beyond family, there is far less consensus about what matters most,” Gallup reported. “The five that rise to the top when Americans are asked to choose their top values cast a different light on people’s priorities.”