A solid majority (60%) of surveyed adults, in the U.S., aged 18-75 said "yes" to Ukraine officially joining NATO, which is one of several reasons why Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, decided to send Russian troops to invade Ukraine, with the hope of taking back control of territory once controlled by the former Soviet Union.
Only 11% of surveyed adults said "no" to Ukraine's membership in NATO, and nearly a third (30%) were not sure.
There was a large disparity, when it came to Ukraine's membership in NATO, between the youngest adults surveyed aged 18-24 (56% yes/14% no) and 25-44 (54% yes/14% no) compared to the oldest adults surveyed, aged 60-75 (74% yes/6% no). Three quarters of the oldest adults surveyed supported Ukraine as a permanent member of NATO, which was twenty percentage higher than the support expressed by younger adults.
Surveyed men (69% yes/10% no) were also much more likely to support Ukraine's membership in NATO than surveyed women (51% yes/11% no).
Politically, Democrats (68% yes/10% no) supported Ukraine's membership in NATO more than Republicans (58% yes/11% no) and Independents (55% yes/12% no). A third of Independents (33%) and Republicans (31%) were not sure compared with one fifth (22%) of Democrats who were also on the fence.
Two-thirds of adults in large cities (65% yes/15% no), with more than a 500K population, supported Ukraine's membership in NATO. There was also strong support among adults from rural areas (61% yes/8% no), adults in medium sized cities (58% yes/14% no), small cities (54% yes/6% no), and the suburbs (60% yes/10% no).
Union members (70% yes/12% no) were much more likely to say "yes" to Ukraine's NATO membership than non-Union adults (58% yes/10% no). Education also played a part in how voters felt about Ukrainian membership in NATO-college educated (70% yes/9% no) adults were fourteen percentage points more likely to say "yes" than non-college educated adults (56% yes/11% no).
Ukraine's membership in NATO is at the heart of the struggle between Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has seen itself become surrounded by more and more NATO members on Europe's Northeastern flank, which has increasingly made Ukraine a flashpoint. In 2014, Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula away from Ukraine, and has also supported the independence of two breakaway regions on the Russian border with Ukraine, Donetsk, and Luhansk. Russia has aggressively opposed Ukraine's membership in NATO and seen it as a direct threat against its security. Russia also views Ukraine as part of its historical borders, which most recently took place during the Soviet Union's domination of Eastern Europe until early 1990s.
The U.S. has remained steadfast in its support of Ukraine's NATO membership but must tread carefully right now as to not further escalate the military conflict for fear of starting WWIII.
One thing remains clear, adults and politicians in the U.S. want Ukraine in NATO, but the unintended consequences could be a larger scale war between the U.S./Europe and Russia/China.
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Zogby Analytics Poll Methodology
US Adults Aged 18-75
3/1/22 - 3/2/22
Zogby Analytics conducted an online survey of 1007 adults aged 18-75 in the US.
Using internal and trusted interactive partner resources, thousands of adults were randomly invited to participate in this interactive survey. Each invitation is password coded and secure so that one respondent can only access the survey one time.
Using information based on census data, voter registration figures, CIA fact books and exit polls, we use complex weighting techniques to best represent the demographics of the population being surveyed. Weighted variables may include age, race, gender, region, party, education, and religion. The party breakdown for this survey is as follows: 38% Democrat, 38% Republican and 24% Independent/unaffiliated.
Based on a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error for 1007 is +/- 3.1 percentage points. This means that all other things being equal, the identical survey repeated will have results within the margin of error 95 times out of 100.
Subsets of the data have a larger margin of error than the whole data set. As a rule we do not rely on the validity of very small subsets of the data especially sets smaller than 50-75 respondents. At that subset we can make estimations based on the data, but in these cases the data is more qualitative than quantitative.
Additional factors can create error, such as question wording and question order.
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About Zogby Analytics:
Zogby Analytics is respected nationally and internationally for its opinion research capabilities. Since 1984, Zogby has empowered clients with powerful information and knowledge critical for making informed strategic decisions.
The firm conducts multi-phased opinion research engagements for banking and financial services institutions, insurance companies, hospitals and medical centers, retailers and developers, religious institutions, cultural organizations, colleges and universities, IT companies and Federal agencies. Zogby's dedication and commitment to excellence and accuracy are reflected in its state-of-the-art opinion research capabilities and objective analysis and consultation.