What do Americans plan to do for the 4th? Stay home

Jamie BallardData Journalist
July 04, 2020, 12:00 PM GMT+0

This year’s 4th of July celebrations will look different for many Americans.

The most common way Americans plan to celebrate Independence Day 2020 is by staying home and relaxing, according to the latest Economist/YouGov Poll. About two in five (41%) say this is their plan for the weekend holiday, up from 34 percent who said the same last year.

One-quarter (25%) plan to host or attend a cookout, and 24 percent will have a get-together with family and friends.

About a quarter (24%) plan to watch TV (specifically, not sports – though 6 percent of US adults do plan to watch sports on the 4th) and 20 percent say they don’t have any plans for 4th of July weekend. Some plan to make it a productive day by doing household chores (18%) or getting some yardwork done (12%).

Americans are less likely to do this year a few things this year, like attend a parade or go to a professional fireworks display. Last year, 13 percent said they planned to attend a fireworks display, only 5 percent say that’s the plan this year. Meanwhile, 9 percent said they had plans to go to a local event or parade on July 4, 2019 while this year, just 3 percent do.

See the toplines and crosstabs from this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll

Related: Half of US adults say it should be illegal to burn the American flag

Methodology: The Economist survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,500 U.S. adult citizens interviewed online between June 28 - 30, 2020. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the US Bureau of the Census, as well as 2016 Presidential vote, registration status, geographic region, and news interest. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all US citizens. The margin of error is approximately 3.3% for the overall sample.