60% Plan to Honor Memorial Day
Just one-out-of-five American Adults have served in the U.S. military, but most of their fellow citizens plan on doing something special on Memorial Day to honor those who gave their lives for their country.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of Americans plan on doing something special to celebrate Memorial Day and honor the sacrifice of those who died in military service. That finding is up six points from last year and up 12 points from late May 2008. Twenty-six percent (26%) do not plan on engaging in any holiday festivities, while 14% more are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Seventy-six percent (76%) of those who have served in the military plan to honor Memorial Day, compared to 56% of those who have not served. Similarly, those with friends or relatives in military service in Iraq or Afghanistan are more likely to celebrate Memorial Day than those who do not.
Twenty percent (20%) of all adults have served in the U.S. military. Seventy-nine percent (79%) say they have not served. These findings have shown little change for years now.
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The national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on May 24-25, 2011 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.
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