The political gap over the theory of evolution has swelled between Democrats and Republicans according to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, NBC News reported.
The poll released on Monday shows that the general acceptance of evolution has remained the same, with 60 percent agreeing with the statement "humans and other living things have evolved over time" and 33 percent saying "humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."
However, the demographics of who believed what were most interesting about the new survey. The gap between Republicans and Democrats was a 24-point difference, up from a 10-point gap in 2009 and a 13-point gap in 2005.
In the last four years, the percentage of Democrats believing in evolution increased by three points while the percentage of Republicans believing in evolution dropped 11 points.
Of those who agreed with evolution, 43 percent of participants were Republicans compared to the 67 percent that were Democrats. Of the white evangelical Protestants, 64 percent said humans have always been the same while 15 percent of white mainline Protestants agreed.
"It's an intriguing finding that is suggestive of greater polarization," said Cary Funk, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project and Social & Demographic Trends project, to NBC.
The poll also noted that the changing of phrases, from "humans and other living things" to "animals and other living things" did not garner a significant change in responses.
In 2005, a study including 34 countries measuring public acceptance of evolution placed the United States in 33rd place, only ahead of Turkey.
Pew conducted their survey between March 31 and April 8 with 1,983 adults ages 18 or older. The margin of sampling error is 3 percentage points.
