{"id":563,"date":"2026-08-26T10:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T10:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/americans-oppose-ai-data-centers-poll\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T22:51:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T22:51:34","slug":"americans-oppose-ai-data-centers-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/americans-oppose-ai-data-centers-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Oppose AI Data Centers Near Them, Poll Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new poll finds that 75% of Americans do not want a data center built near them, and 64% would strongly oppose such a development. Only 15% of respondents favor a nearby data center, with just 4% strongly in favor. The survey shows opposition rising across age, gender, income, party affiliation, and the rural-urban divide.<\/p>\n<h2>How fast has opposition grown?<\/h2>\n<p>Heatmap has now run the same question four times in the past year without changing its wording. Last August, 43% of respondents were at least okay with a nearby data center while 42% were not. By February, opposition had climbed to 51%, and by May it reached 60%, with 54% strongly opposed. The newest survey puts opposition 33 points higher than the August baseline, a swing the site\u2019s editors describe as faster and deeper than expected on any issue.<\/p>\n<h2>How partisan is the gap?<\/h2>\n<p>Data centers sit underwater with every major political group in the latest numbers. The facilities are 43 points underwater with Republicans, 65 points underwater with independents, and 75 points underwater with Democrats.<\/p>\n<h2>What is driving the backlash?<\/h2>\n<p>The poll does not break out the reasons people have soured on data centers. A separate July survey from the real-estate firm Redfin found that 53% of Americans did not want a data center built nearby while 34% would support one, putting the latest Heatmap result in the same range as other polling.<\/p>\n<p>Several complaints have piled up over the past few years as AI services and platforms have grown:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The noise the facilities generate.<\/li>\n<li>Pollution from on-site gas turbines used by many of the larger complexes.<\/li>\n<li>The relatively few jobs that remain after construction is finished.<\/li>\n<li>Visual and environmental effects on rural scenery and electric infrastructure.<\/li>\n<li>Concerns about AI output, including hallucinations and low-quality web content.<\/li>\n<li>Rising power bills paid even by people who live far from the sites.<\/li>\n<li>Higher prices on phones, tablets, and computers tied to the AI boom.<\/li>\n<li>A speculative data-center financing boom that critics say could destabilize the economy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How big is the protest movement?<\/h2>\n<p>Dislike of data centers has spread far enough that a new ad for Liquid Death and Garage Beer features former NFL player Jason Kelce urging viewers to drink the beverages in order to produce liquid to cool data centers. Nationwide protests against data centers have also taken place across the United States.<\/p>\n<h2>How was the poll conducted?<\/h2>\n<p>Embold Research ran the survey among 2,045 registered American voters through text-to-web responses from Aug. 8 to 13. The poll was published by Heatmap News on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<h2>FAQ<\/h2>\n<h3>What share of Americans oppose a data center near them?<\/h3>\n<p>Three-quarters of Americans, 75%, say they do not want a data center built near them, and 64% strongly oppose one, according to the latest Heatmap News poll.<\/p>\n<h3>How has opposition to data centers changed over the past year?<\/h3>\n<p>The share of respondents who opposed a nearby data center rose from 42% in August of last year to 51% in February, 60% in May, and 75% in the newest survey, a 33-point swing in 12 months.<\/p>\n<h3>Do Republicans and Democrats both oppose data centers?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. The facilities are 43 points underwater with Republicans, 65 points underwater with independents, and 75 points underwater with Democrats, according to the poll.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What share of Americans oppose a data center near them?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Three-quarters of Americans, 75%, say they do not want a data center built near them, and 64% strongly oppose one, according to the latest Heatmap News poll.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How has opposition to data centers changed over the past year?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The share of respondents who opposed a nearby data center rose from 42% in August of last year to 51% in February, 60% in May, and 75% in the newest survey, a 33-point swing in 12 months.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Do Republicans and Democrats both oppose data centers?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. The facilities are 43 points underwater with Republicans, 65 points underwater with independents, and 75 points underwater with Democrats, according to the poll.\"}}]}]}<\/script><\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin:2.5em 0 1em;opacity:.35\" \/>\n<p style=\"font-size:.85em;opacity:.7\">This article summarizes reporting from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/news\/americans-hate-ai-data-centers-even-more-fiercely-new-poll-shows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pcmag.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new poll finds 75% of Americans do not want a data center built nearby, with 64% strongly opposed. Opposition has grown 33 points in a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_title":"Americans Oppose AI Data Centers, Poll Shows","rank_math_description":"75% of Americans do not want a data center built nearby, with 64% strongly opposed. Opposition has grown 33 points in the last year.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"ai data centers","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_robots":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seoscanpro.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}