What do American people think about foreign wars?
Force axis · 🇺🇸 the United States · measured continuously, published only above 100 responses.
51% of American respondents take the position “What a country does to its own people can be the world's business.”, against 27% for “No country should meddle inside another, whatever is going on there.”, with 22% choosing neither. n = 108, margin of error ±9.5, weighted to the United States's adult population.
Where the United States sits on force
What is measured about the United States on this axis. These are facts about the country, not what its people think about them — that is the part of this page waiting on a sample.
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Military spending
SIPRI · 2024
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3.4% |
higher than most countries
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Armed forces personnel
IISS Military Balance · 2020
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1,395,000 |
among the highest in the world
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Ranked against every country with a published figure for the same series. Sources: World Bank World Development Indicators, which republish UN, ILO, UNESCO, WHO, SIPRI, IISS and UNODC data.
The questions that bear on foreign wars
Asked as a forced choice between two written positions, in randomised order, with the sides flipped for half of respondents.
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A · No country should meddle inside another, whatever is going on there.
B · What a country does to its own people can be the world's business.
World, unweighted: 53% A ·
22% neither ·
25% B · n = 3882
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51% B 🇺🇸 n=108 |
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A · We should not go to war over someone else's quarrel.
B · We should be ready to go to war to defend a friend.
World, unweighted: 49% A ·
24% neither ·
27% B · n = 3958
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43% B 🇺🇸 n=113 |
A national figure appears only once that nation clears 100 responses on the question. The world column is a raw count of every answer received and is not post-stratified — it is shown because withholding it would say less, not more.
Asked another way
The same question, as people put it.
- The united states public opinion on foreign wars
- Foreign wars poll the united states
- What do american people think about foreign wars
- What percentage of american people support foreign wars
Each has one answer on this page, and it is the same answer.