44% Favor Gay Marriage, 44% Oppose
Friday, October 25, 2013
Voters nationwide are almost evenly divided when asked if marriage is a religious or civil institution, but slightly more feel laws regarding marriage should be set at the state or local level rather than by the federal government. There are sharp differences of opinion over gay marriage depending on how voters feel about these two issues.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters consider marriage to be more of a religious institution than a civil one. Nearly as many (45%) regard marriage more as a civil institution. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on October 22-23, 2013 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.