How did we do this?
Pew Research Center has been conducting extensive research on the public's attitudes toward the economy, including opinions on economic inequality. As part of this research, we conducted this survey to better understand Americans' views on the factors behind why some people are richer or poorer. We also wanted to know if attitudes had changed since September 2018.
For this analysis, we surveyed 12,638 U.S. adults in January 2020. All survey participants are members of Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel (ATP). The ATP is an online survey panel randomly drawn from addresses across the country. This methodology ensures that nearly every U.S. adult has a chance of being selected. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, political party, education, and other categories. More information about the ATP survey methodology can be found here. We also conducted a simultaneous telephone survey of 1,504 adults from January 8-13 to measure attitude change and determine whether there are mode differences between online and phone surveys.
Below are the questions and answers used in the report, as well as its methodology.
When asked the fundamental question of why some people are wealthy and others are poor, many Americans point to the advantages they have or the obstacles they face rather than to a hard work ethic. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults (65%) say the main reason some people are wealthy is because they have had more advantages in life than most other people. Far fewer (33%) say it's because they worked harder than others.
An even larger majority (71%) say people are poor because they face more obstacles in life. Only about a quarter (26%) say they are poor because they don't work hard enough.
According to a new Pew Research Center survey of 12,638 U.S. adults from the center's American Trends Panel conducted Jan. 6-19, views, as always, are divided sharply along party lines: Majorities of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say having advantages in life has more to do with why people are rich (82%) and facing more hardships has more to do with why people are poor (86%).
Republicans and Republican-leaning voters are also divided, with 53% saying hard work has something to do with why people are wealthy, and 45% saying it's because they're in a favorable position.When it comes to why people are poor, 55% of Republicans say it's mainly because they've faced hardships that most people haven't, while 42% say it's mainly because they don't work as hard as most people.
Perspectives on why people are wealthy, 2014-2020
Attitudes about why people are wealthy have changed significantly in recent years, with an increasing percentage of Americans believing that the main reason they are wealthy is because they have more advantages than other people.
A separate telephone survey, also conducted in January, found that the share of people who say someone is wealthy primarily because they have more advantages than others has increased by 13 percentage points since 2018, while the share who say someone's wealth is the result of hard work has fallen by a similar amount (12 points). These changes are evident among both Republicans and Democrats.
It is important to note that there is a modal difference between the phone and online surveys. This difference is more pronounced among Republicans than Democrats. Comparing the January phone and panel surveys among Republicans, roughly the same percentage say that the wealthy are wealthy because they “have worked harder than most other people.” However, there is a 16 percentage point difference (29% phone, 45% online) in the percentage who say that the wealthy are wealthy “because they have had more advantages in life.” One reason for this difference is that a significant share of Republicans volunteer “both” (14%) or “don't know” (4%) on the phone, whereas such volunteering is not possible online (a minority (2%) skip the question online).
Democrats offer similar views on this question regardless of methodology: Roughly 8 in 10 say they got richer because they had more advantages in life, the highest percentage of people who said this since the question was first asked in 2014. For more information on the differences in methodology, see “Trends are the foundation of polling, so how do you ensure they persist even as survey modes change?“
Views on the influence of billionaires on a country
When asked about the influence billionaires have on the country, a majority (58%) said it's neither good nor bad, according to a January survey.
Nearly a quarter (23%) say the fact that some people have personal wealth of more than $1 billion is a bad thing, while slightly fewer (19%) think this is a good thing.
Republicans and Democrats are divided on the impact of billionaires: A majority of Republicans (62%) say having billionaires in the country is neither a bad nor a good thing, but more see it as a positive thing (28%) than a negative thing (9%).
In contrast, more Democrats say the fact that someone has a net worth of more than $1 billion is a bad thing (34%) than a good thing (12%), while 53% say it's neither a good nor a bad thing.
Liberal Democrats in particular have a negative view of billionaires: Nearly half (48%) say billionaires are bad for the country, nearly twice as many as conservative and moderate Democrats (23%) who say the same.
Younger people are more likely than older people to say billionaires are a bad thing: Nearly four in ten adults under 30 (39%) say the fact that billionaires have fortunes of more than $1 billion is a bad thing, compared with 24% of those 30-49 and just 15% of those over 50.
In both parties, people under 30 are more likely to express negative opinions about billionaires' impact on the country than older people. Still, while half of young Democrats say billionaires are a bad thing, only 22% of Republicans ages 18 to 29 agree.
Among the public, views on the impact of billionaires don't vary much by household income, but while 37% of Republicans with household incomes of $150,000 or more say it's a good thing that billionaires exist, significantly fewer Republicans with household incomes under $30,000, at 23%, say the same.
