Poll numbers show that only 50 percent of American adults believe that global warming poses a threat to them personally.

A nationwide survey based on data taken throughout 2016 indicated that 40 percent of U.S. adults believed that global warming posed a threat to them as individuals, according to the Yale Program On Climate Change Communication.

Participants who did consider global warming a personal threat primarily lived in counties in metro areas of southern and central California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Texas and Colorado.

Counties who responded negatively to the same question dominated regions in the Midwest, East and South.

A small minority -- 10 percent -- of respondents were undecided on the question.

Some authorities posit that changing demographics, among many other possible influences, may be causing more people to buy into the science behind global warming.

Roberto Suro, a professor of public policy and journalism at the University of Southern California, mentioned a possible connection between age and belief in climate change science, according to The New York Times.

Latinos are "a young population with the median age significantly younger than the white population, and younger still than the African-American population," said Suro.

Suro speculates that California's substantial Latino population could therefore be a driving force behind the state's concerns about global warming.

A much higher percentage (58) of poll participants in California believed that global warming would harm people in the U.S., and an even greater percentage (63) agreed that global warming would harm people in developing countries.

In all, 70 percent of participants were in agreement that global warming is an existing phenomenon, while 71 percent responded that they trust climate scientists about global warming.

Slightly more than half -- 53 percent -- responded that they believe global warming is caused by human activities, as opposed to natural changes.

Virtually every county in the U.S. had at least a 50 percent proportion of its inhabitants who supported funding research into renewable energy sources.

In all, 82 percent of respondents supported funding research into alternative energy.

Similarly, practically every U.S. county had at least half of its poll respondents say that they believe carbon dioxide should be regulated as a pollutant.

Fully 75 percent of participants believe carbon dioxide should be regulated.

States in the West, who are more commonly affected by environmental crises such as drought and wildfires, also saw a higher percentage of people who reported talking about climate change on a regular basis.

Similarly, people more commonly report discussing climate change when they are the inhabitants of areas in the East that are typically hit hard by hurricanes, such as those in southern Florida.