Most Americans would support a mask mandate, following a steady trend seen in the Economist/YouGov Poll since July. The latest data on support for mask mandates comes as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reaches 5.9M in the United States, with 182,585 coronavirus deaths.
Half of Americans (50%) say they would strongly support a policy that made it mandatory to wear masks in public places, while 17 percent say they would somewhat support a mandatory mask policy. While two-thirds (67%) of Americans show support for mask mandates, 27 percent of Americans say they would oppose such a policy.
Republicans are split on whether they would support a mask mandate. Half (48%) say they would somewhat support or strongly support a policy that made it mandatory to wear masks in public places, compared to half (49%) who say they would oppose a mask mandate.
Supporters of Donald Trump are more likely than supporters of Joe Biden to say they would oppose a mandatory mask policy. Half (54%) of those who choose Trump in a trial heat against Biden say they would oppose a mask mandate, compared to 8 percent of those who say they will vote for Biden in 2020. In contrast, two in five (41%) Trump supporters say they support a mask mandate, compared to 91 percent of Biden supporters.
See the toplines and crosstabs from this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll
Methodology: The Economist survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,500 U.S. adult citizens interviewed online between August 30 - September 1, 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 3.5% for the overall sample.
Image: Getty
