Americans remain polarized about climate change, yet recent research has uncovered a plurality of opinions about it among the public. This map uses opinion estimates from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication to define groups of counties where majorities share similarities in their climate change awareness levels, risk perceptions, and policy support. A value-by-alpha technique is used to apply increasing levels of transparency to counties with more rural populations - providing visual importance to counties with the largest populations. The result is a picture of the character and geographic distribution of Americans widely varying climate change beliefs.
Cluster 1: Lowest levels of awareness, risk perception, and policy support.
Cluster 2: Low levels of awareness and risk perception, and less opposed to some climate policies.
Cluster 3: Moderate levels of awareness, risk perception, and support for climate policies.
Cluster 4: High levels of awareness, moderate risk perception, and high support for some climate policies.
Cluster 5: Moderate levels of awareness, high risk perception, and high support for some climate policies.
Cluster 6: Highest levels of awareness, risk perception, and support for climate policies.