2026 Survey Shows Deepening Economic Pain and Concern for America’s Future
Inflation remains the top issue across all kinds of communities in the United States and its impacts are deepening. Healthcare is a growing concern. And early optimism about the Trump administration has receded.
Those are three important findings in a new survey from the American Communities Project as the 2026 midterm election nears.
The new survey, conducted by SSRS and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, follows on surveys from 2023, 2024, and 2025, digging into some of the same questions and topics as the previous years. It finds an electorate that is disheartened and feeling real economic pain, but also still hopeful for the country in some ways.
The survey was conducted with SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus survey over two weeks, September 3–6, 2026, and September 17–21, 2026, with 2,155 respondents and a margin of error of +/- 2.4 points. The ACP county-type analysis was modeled by statistician G. Elliott Morris. He turned the data into county-level estimates using a multilevel regression and poststratification model and aggregated them into the ACP’s types. (You can read a full methodology here.)
An outline of the key findings follows.
Inflation Becomes a Pain Point for Voters
The ACP has been conducting surveys for four years now, and in every survey and every community type, “inflation or increasing costs” has emerged as the top issue affecting local communities. In this latest survey, the number of respondents choosing it as one of the three most important issues stood at 49% nationally, essentially flat from the 50% who selected it in 2025.
Most community types saw small increases — 1 to 5 percentage points — in the number of people saying that inflation was a top issue. A few saw decreases; among them were the Hispanic Centers, LDS Enclaves, and Urban Suburbs.
Some of that subtle movement may be due to how this question is presented. Respondents are given a list of 20 issues and asked to pick the top three. So, as new issues grow in importance, others must recede. Regardless, it’s hard to read the 2026 results as anything more than a continuation of the status quo on attitudes about inflation across the board.
But there was a sharp change in the data regarding the impacts of inflation — specifically, the percentage of people who said they were feeling “serious financial problems” from increasing prices rose by 17 percentage points nationally to 47%. And the numbers rose by double-digits in every community type.
There were five community types where more than 50% of those surveyed said they experienced “serious hardship.”
Those communities are a real mix of places: the African American South, Evangelical Hubs, Hispanic Centers, Native American Lands, and Working Class Country. Some are racially and ethnically diverse; others are not. Some politically lean to the right and some to the left. But none of them are wealthy and all are fairly rural.
Those last two points may suggest that rising gas and diesel prices are a big driver of the pain. Residents in rural communities commonly need to drive longer distances to do even simple errands, and they often drive bigger vehicles that burn more fuel.
Regardless, there is little question about where most voters’ minds are this fall. Inflation has been a top concern for several years now. These latest data show that the issue has become more than a concern to many voters, but a real pain point in all kinds of communities.
Healthcare Rises
Another major finding in this year’s survey is the degree to which healthcare is now seen as a top issue across the country — and in all the community types. Overall, 30% said healthcare is a top-three issue in their community, a 10-point jump from 2025. This year, the percentages climbed above 30% in a few economically diverse community types: Big Cities, College Towns, Hispanic Centers, and LDS Enclaves. Big Cities hit a high of 32%. Evangelical Hubs and Working Class Country, both lower-income communities, were at the low end at 24% and 26%, respectively. This relatively small 8-point variance among the 15 community types conveys how broadly the healthcare issue is felt.
This may be because increasing prices across the American economy are intensely affecting the costs of healthcare. In addition, communities have been coping with residents losing health insurance coverage, hospital closures, and disease outbreaks due to federal policy changes and public health challenges in the past year.
Real Issue Differences in Some Communities
The many community differences that define the ACP are evident in much of the Project’s work, but in these survey data, a few communities really looked like outliers where some issues were concerned.
Immigration
One issue that dominated the 2024 presidential election doesn’t carry a lot of import in 2026 — at least at the local level. Nationally, only 17% of respondents rated immigration as a top-three issue in their community.
But two communities were exceptions to that rule: the Hispanic Centers and the LDS Enclaves. More than 20% of the respondents in each of these community types (28% and 21% respectively) rated the issue as a top concern where they live.
There are a few factors driving those responses. The fact that the Hispanic Centers rate the issue so highly makes sense. These communities not only have lots of Hispanic residents but are also heavily based in the southwestern part of the country where border crossings are a much bigger part of the local story.
The percentage in the LDS Enclaves might surprise some, but as we have previously noted on this site, these communities are often home to large Hispanic populations. And those populations are regularly welcomed in LDS Enclaves, especially if they are members of the LDS church. Those communities might lean Republican, but they can be very hospitable to immigrants.
Opioids
The opioid crisis is a big part of the American political discussion, but it carries a heavier weight in some rural communities, such as Rural Middle America, Working Class Country, Native American Lands, and especially the Evangelical Hubs.
Nationally, only 14% of respondents said opioids and drug addiction are in their top three issues of concern. But in those communities, more than 23% said opioids and drugs are a big issue. In Evangelical Hubs, the figure was 35% — more than twice the national number.
The figures are worth noting because voters in these communities have been talking about drug concerns for some time and the issue remains big for them. It’s a sign that even as drug use is often thought of as an urban problem, rural communities tend to see a larger problem.
Crime
The issue of crime and gun violence follows a similar pattern. While the national narrative is often focused on “lawless cities,” including the Trump administration’s National Guard deployments in Washington, D.C., the ACP survey has consistently shown the concerns are greatest in the African American South communities. That trend continued in this year’s survey.
Nationally, 15% of respondents viewed crime and gun violence as a top-three concern in their local community, but in the African American South, the figure was twice as high, at 29%. That figure was 10 points higher than the next highest community type, the Big Cities.
America’s Challenges and Future Hopes
Perhaps the most jarring viewpoint shift from the latest survey is the percentage of Americans nationwide who agree with the statement: “The United States is in decline.” The percentage hit 70% this year, up from 55% last year.
These percentages do not vary too much at the community level. This year, the sentiment reached a high of 74% in two diametrically opposite communities: the Urban Suburbs and Native American Lands. In contrast, in Evangelical Hubs, 64% of residents held this view, while in Graying America and Middle Suburbs, 67% did.
It’s a marked change from last year at the community level, too — 48% of residents in Evangelical Hubs, Native American Lands, and Working Class Country agreed that the country was in decline. Other communities also were not as gloomy then. In Urban Suburbs, 61% said the country was in decline. Again, Middle Suburbs and Graying America were closely tied at 54% and 53%, respectively.
Given these numbers, it’s not surprising that many people do not share hope for America’s short-term future. This year, 47% nationwide expressed that they are hopeful about the future of the United States over the next few years. This was lower than the 55% who said so last year.
What may be more surprising are the community types where hope is at a low ebb in 2026. Just 42% in the Urban Suburbs said they are hopeful for America’s future over the next few years. These communities are among the most affluent of those we study, with high educational attainment and high incomes. However, the unemployment rate has been ticking up in these places.
Other opportunity bastions feeling today’s strain are College Towns. Just 45% of residents said they are hopeful about the future of America over the next few years. While this lower percentage is not in line with how many view the optimism of youth, it may show how recent federal funding cuts; free-speech issues; concerns about public safety, mental health, and displacement by artificial intelligence mixed with the increased costs of college and daily living are creating a cauldron of discontent.
Expressing a more hopeful outlook are the Evangelical Hubs and Working Class Country communities, filled with rock-ribbed conservatives. Overall, 57% of residents in Evangelical Hubs and 53% of those in Working Class Country said they are hopeful about the future of the United States over the next few years.
Notwithstanding the diverse issues that drive concerns in communities and the differences in attitudes about America’s future, people largely believe that “Americans have more in common than is generally believed.” This year, 72% agreed with that statement compared with 69% who agreed last year.
In addition, this view was relatively uniform among the 15 community types, from a low of 69% in the Hispanic Centers to a high of 76% in the Aging Farmlands. It appears to be a widely desired view and aspirational goal, suggesting an opening for emerging leaders to appeal to — and harness — Americans’ highest and shared values for the common good.
Moving Forward
Of course, all surveys are snapshots in time, but the ACP conducted this survey at this moment because we wanted to understand where the nation and the community types stood before a crucial election.
The views and attitudes of Americans may look quite different once the results are in. We found that was true in 2025. In the nation’s current unsettled state, elections are about more than just representation, they are about different kinds of people and places voicing very strong and often very different opinions about what the nation is and should be.
The ACP plans to field this same survey in early 2027 after the new Congress is seated to examine any movement on the issues.