Comparison of shifted public opinion

David Leonhardt and Alicia Parlapiano compared public opinion over time for various social issues, based on estimates from the Pew Research Center and Gallup. The issues fall into two categories.

In one category are the rights-based issues in which the future can be safely predicted. In the other category — which includes abortion, gun control and climate change — there is far less clarity about the direction of public opinion.

I like the blocked time series on the single time axis. Each is self-encapsulated, but you can also compare the rate of change across issues. A white horizontal line for each provides the majority marker, and I think the the white vertical lines indicate years in which an estimate was not available.

See the full comparison.