Survey: Nearly two-thirds of young Americans support socialism
The survey found 62 percent of American adults under age 30 hold a 'favorable' view of socialism.
34 percent of American adults under age 30 hold a 'favorable' view of communism.
According to a recent survey, 62 percent of American adults under 30 say they hold favorable views of socialism.
A Cato/YouGov survey conducted in March asked 2,000 American adults a range of questions about U.S. fiscal policy. The survey found that 62 percent of adults under age 30 expressed a favorable view of socialism, while just 38 percent held an unfavorable view.
When asked, “Do you have a favorable or unfavorable view of Communism?”, 34 percent of respondents aged 18–29 answered “favorable,” with 66 percent answering “unfavorable.” Only 14 percent of total respondents held a favorable view of communism.
[RELATED: UH OH: Disturbing number of young Americans favor communism, poll finds]
Cato Institute Senior Editor Michael Chapman explained that the poll did not define socialism, leaving it up to the respondents to determine what the term meant. He noted that regardless of which of the many definitions of socialism the respondents may have had in mind, all forms of socialism share a “disdain for capitalism.”
Support for socialism and communism among 18–29-year-olds exceeds that of the general population and past polls of young adults. A 2019 Gallup poll of 1,500 Americans found that 52 percent of those surveyed aged 18–34 held a positive view of socialism.
A 2020 poll commissioned by the nonprofit Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and conducted by YouGov found that 49 percent of Gen Z held a “favorable opinion of the term ‘socialism.’”
In 2020, Campus Reform covered similar findings in a poll which found that “70 percent of Millennials say they are likely to vote for a socialist while one in three view communism favorably.”
In the 2025 Cato/YouGov poll, the younger the age group surveyed, the more likely the respondent was to hold a favorable view of socialism. This also held true in the 2019 Gallup and 2020 Victims of Communism/YouGov polls: the older the age group, the less likely the respondent was to hold a favorable view of socialism.
The Cato/YouGov poll also revealed that respondents who identified as Democrats were more likely to hold a favorable view of socialism. It found that 67 percent of Democrats surveyed said they held a favorable view of socialism, with only 50 percent saying the same of capitalism. Overall, 59 percent of all respondents held a favorable of capitalism.
The 2025 Cato/YouGov poll is the latest in a series of surveys documenting generational differences in views on socialism and capitalism. Campus Reform will continue to monitor young Americans’ shifting attitudes toward socialism and communism.
