Americans Divided on Return to Normal Life

As more and more states have started gradually lifting stay-at-home orders that were put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19, Americans are deeply divided on whether or not they should return to business-as-usual just yet.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 21 percent of U.S. adults would return to normal day-to-day activities “right now” if there were no government restrictions, while 36 percent would rather wait for the number of new cases in their respective state to decline significantly before returning to normal. 31 percent of respondents would wait until no new cases are reported and 12 percent would even hold out until a vaccine is developed.

While the percentage of respondents ready to return to normalcy immediately has increased from 13 to 21 percent between Apr. 2-6 and Apr. 20-26 polls, the gap between stay-at-home advocates and those in favor of opening up has also widened. As the following chart shows, it is most pronounced between party lines, as 44 percent of Republicans would return to normal day-to-day activities right now versus just 4 percent of Democrats. Interestingly, there are also significant differences between age groups and people from different locales, with middle-aged respondents (those mostly in charge of providing for a family) and those living in rural areas more eager to get back to normal life.