One day after President Donald Trump imposed sweeping reciprocal tariffs on dozens of U.S. trading partners, a new Gallup poll finds increasing majorities of Americans are worried about pocketbook issues.
Americans’ economic worries are at their highest point since 2011, according to the survey.
In the poll, conducted March 3-16, Americans are most worried about the economy (60%) — an increase of 8 percentage points compared with a year earlier. The availability and affordability of health care (59%), inflation (56%), federal spending and the budget deficit (53%), and the Social Security system (52%) rounded out the top five worries. In all five categories, poll respondents said they worry about them a great deal.
Concerns about Social Security are at their highest level in 15 years, the poll found. Health care concerns haven’t ranked as highly on the worry list since 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both the Social Security Administration and Department of Health and Human Services are undergoing staff reductions as the Trump administration aims to reduce federal government spending.
Crime, drug use, immigration and the availability and affordability of energy have all become less concerning among Americans since Trump took office.
The poll found Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents were more worried than Republicans and Republican leaners on nearly every survey issue. While Republicans were more worried than Democrats about the federal budget deficit, crime, illegal immigration, drug use, and the size and power of the federal government, Democrats were more worried than Republicans on every other issue.