Americans’ belief in Bigfoot is on the rise.
In a CivicScience survey in mid-July, 13% of U.S. adults said they agree with the statement, “Bigfoot / Sasquatch is a real, living creature.” That’s up from 11% who said the same in May 2020 – an 18% increase.
In fact, belief in ‘conspiracy theories’ grew across the board over the past two years.
Similarly to our 2020 study, Americans living in the West were still the most likely to believe in Bigfoot – 15% of residents in the West are believers, compared with 11% of those in the Northeast. However, it appears the overall uptick in Sasquatch truthers has come from the cities and suburbs. Rural Americans were no more likely to believe in Bigfoot this year than they were in 2020, but city-slickers and suburbanites were.
Just like we found in 2020, Gen X (ages 35 to 54) was more likely to believe in Bigfoot, while older adults were more likely to be skeptics. But all age groups saw at least some growth in Sasquatch belief.
Interestingly, one’s desire to get in touch with nature could be correlated to their belief in Sasquatch. People who say they believe in Bigfoot were more likely than others to visit state or national parks at least a few times per year.
Compared to non-believers, Bigfoot believers are generally:
- More likely to be daily YouTube users
- More likely to play a musical instrument
- More likely to plan to invest in cryptocurrency
- More likely to bet on sports online
- More likely to believe in the Loch Ness Monster
- More likely to enjoy the 1990s TV show “The X-Files”
- More likely to own a gun
It’s not our place to say whether or not Bigfoot is really out there, but we can say for sure that Sasquatch’s grip on the American psyche is as strong as ever.
