Data restored from a 1974 Iowa Poll shows that Iowans slightly favored providing aid to underdeveloped countries, with a slight majority saying it was “very” or “fairly” important to do so. These data come from Iowa Poll #213, a random sample survey of 601 Iowans from July of 1974, which has been restored as part of a larger project to recover lost data from past Iowa polls.

When asked “How important do you feel it is that the U.S.” “provide support for programs to help poor people in underdeveloped countries”, respondents were given five options: “very important,” “fairly important,” “not too important,” “not important at all,” and “no opinion.” The most common responses overall were “fairly important” (39.9%) and “very important” (12.9%), with a significant portion of respondents expressing less enthusiasm: 23.5% said the support was “not too important,” and 17.3% said it was “not important at all.”

Additional analysis shows that responses varied with party identification. Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say such aid was “very important” (17.1% vs. 11.3%), while Independents were the most likely group to label it “fairly important” (44.9%). Republicans and Democrats showed similar levels of skepticism, with 17.9% and 19.0% respectively saying the aid was “not important at all.” Independents were more likely to fall in the middle, with 26.7% choosing “not too important” and only 15.0% selecting “not important at all.” While the partisan divide was not stark, these results show that party identification did relate to meaningful variation in the intensity and framing of support for foreign aid programs.

Iowa Poll #213, conducted by the Des Moines Register, was administered to a random sample of Iowans in July 1974. In addition to the questions about aid to developing countries, the survey asked respondents their opinions on a wide variety of topics, including the economy, inflation, tax policy, and multiple sets of questions related to Watergate. Understanding Iowans’ past opinions on these topics can help us understand how perspectives have changed and what ideas have remained popular. IPOL has also been working with UI Libraries and the Des Moines Register to restore data from dozens of Iowa Polls from the 1960s to early 1980s. More information about the project can be found here. We are working to release a full report on our findings as we analyze additional questions.