Over 50% of Americans expect a civil war to take place in the United States in the next few years, according to a new poll conducted by Ipsos.
Respondents were asked to indicate to what extent they agree or disagree with the statement “In the next few years there will be a civil war in the United States.”
47.8% of those surveyed said they “Do not agree.”
36.4% said they “somewhat agree,” while 8.4% said they “strongly agree” and 5.3% agreed “very strongly.” This means that, in total, 50.1% of those surveyed agreed to a greater or lesser extent that America may soon experience a civil war.
2.1% of respondents declined to answer.
In addition, over 40% of those polled said that “having a strong leader for America is more important than having a democracy,” while over two-thirds agreed that “There is a serious threat to our democracy.”
The study, which took place over around 2 weeks between May and June of this year, surveyed 8,620 Americans in English and Spanish. It was designed by academics from the University of California Davis.
The figures may indicate a jump from a June 2020 poll by Rasmussen, which found that only 34% of likely US voters believed that a civil war in the next 5 years was likely.
Two years prior, in 2018, another Rasmussen poll returned only 31% who believed a civil war was likely.
This may indicate a change in attitude to the potential of civil war over years.