Americans see inflation as the top problem facing the nation today, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday.
Pew found in the poll that seven-in-10 Americans view inflation as a “very big problem” for the country.
The survey found 84% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents worried most about inflation, and the concern is bipartisan: 57% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents rank fast-rising prices at the top, too.
The next-biggest concerns on the survey were affordable health care (55%) and violent crime (54%). About half also described gun violence and the federal budget deficit as very big problems.
Larger shares of Democrats saw gun violence (70%), affordable health care (65%) and climate change (63%) as very big problems. Only 16% of Republicans described climate change as a major issue.
By contrast, 65% of Republicans and only 19% of Democrats view illegal immigration as a very big problem.
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Only 19% of Americans described the COVID-19 outbreak as a very big problem for the country, the lowest share of 12 issues surveyed.
The survey of 5,074 U.S. adults in the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel was conducted on April 25-May 1. The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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