Is political polarization worse than it's been in the past?

Short answer: Yes, by most measures — especially in the U.S.

The data consistently points to today's polarization being historically severe, though the picture varies depending on what exactly you're measuring (elite/congressional polarization, mass public ideology, or "affective" polarization — i.e., partisan animosity).

In Congress, it's the most polarized in decades

Using the widely-used DW-NOMINATE method that scores lawmakers' voting records, Pew Research Center analysis finds that, on average, Democrats and Republicans are farther apart ideologically today than at any time in the past 50 years. This is a structural shift: there are now only about two dozen moderate Democrats and Republicans left on Capitol Hill, versus more than 160 in 1971-72. An earlier study of congressional voting since 1949 also concluded cooperation across parties is worse than it has been for 65 years... The study found that cooperation between members of different parties is now lacking more than ever before.

Partisan hostility (affective polarization) has surged

This is arguably the most striking trend. Pew's landmark research found that by the mid-2010s, Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines – and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive – than at any point in recent history. That trend has kept intensifying: Pew Research Center polling reveals a sharp rise in partisan hostility: in 2022, 72% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats viewed the opposing party as more immoral than other Americans—up dramatically from 47% and 35% in 2016.

Americans' perception of division has also hit new highs. A September 2024 Gallup poll found that a record 80 percent of U.S. adults believe Americans are greatly divided on the most important values, while just 18 percent believe the country is united — the highest percentage of those believing the country is divided ever recorded. Some researchers now frame it starkly: Americans increasingly see the country as more divided than at any time since the Civil War.

Party identifiers are more ideologically uniform

On the mass public side, 2024 data show the shares of Republicans identifying as conservative and Democrats identifying as liberal both reached record highs — meaning the two parties' bases now look more ideologically distinct from each other than in the past 32 years of Gallup tracking, even though the overall national ideological mix has been fairly stable.

An important caveat: leaders vs. the public

Not all research paints citizens themselves as maximally polarized. Some newer work suggests a gap between elites and the electorate: preliminary research and polling suggest that the population at large is less polarized than our political leaders. Local officials report a similar disconnect — 89 percent of local officials say polarization is negatively affecting the United States, the highest figure since data collection began in August 2024, yet only 30 percent of the same officials say polarization is hurting their local community, a figure unchanged during the past year, suggesting that community life remains resilient despite national strife.

Global context

The U.S. isn't unique, but it may be an outlier in severity. While political polarization is growing in other countries worldwide, it is more dramatic in the United States. Globally, elite-level ideological polarization has ticked up modestly: comparative data from 21 high-income countries reveals a small but significant increase in elite ideological polarization, with Canada and Australia cited as countries with low ideological polarization, in contrast to Spain, Italy and Sweden where ideological polarization is high.

Bottom line

By nearly every major metric political scientists track — congressional voting patterns, partisan animosity, perceptions of national division — the U.S. is more polarized now than at any point in the modern polling era (i.e., since the early-to-mid 20th century), and in some framings the rhetoric of division evokes comparisons to the pre-Civil War era. The main nuance is that "polarization" isn't monolithic: policy-based (ideological) polarization has grown substantially but gradually since the 1970s, while animosity-based (affective) polarization has accelerated especially sharply in just the last decade, and ordinary citizens may still be somewhat less extreme than political elites and the loudest voices in media suggest.