Native American Lands – Page 6 – American Communities Project

Economics

How Americans View Infrastructure in Their Community

by Ari Pinkus April 30, 2024

The horrific collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore this spring renewed the nation’s focus on its infrastructure, more than two years after the infrastructure and jobs act was made law and new projects get underway.

Last year, the American Communities Project and Ipsos asked 5,000 Americans their thoughts on the infrastructure in their own communities as part of a survey on the fragmentation of American society. Overall, 60% of Americans rated their community infrastructure as excellent or good. The survey outlined infrastructure broadly, including roads, bridges, water, sewer, and electrical systems. Drilling down by community type, the net excellent/good score ranged nearly 40 points. Ratings were highest in a variety of the nation’s affluent and middle-income communities and lowest in poorer communities of color.

Between 70% and 76% of residents in the affluent, multicultural Urban Suburbs and the rural, Western, Mormon LDS Enclaves rated their neighborhood infrastructure as excellent or good. In Rural Middle America, along the country’s upper tier, and Military Posts, the figures were closer to the average, at 67% and 66% respectively.

Excellent and good percentages were lowest in the Native American Lands at 37% and the African American South at 44%. Not far behind were low-income Working Class Country communities, concentrated in Appalachia, at 48%.

New Infrastructure Projects

Underinvestment has long been a challenge in these places, particularly in Native American communities. As the White House website noted, “For too long, the Federal government has underinvested in the estimated 145,000 miles of roads passing through Tribal lands. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law seeks to rectify these historical wrongs and rebuild our roads and bridges.”

Since the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was enacted in November 2021, 51,000-plus projects have been announced in all 50 states. More than $13.7 billion are going to tribal communities, including for roads, bridges, public transit, water, and sanitation.

Major projects and sums across communities include:

$25 million to build a bicycle and pedestrian bridge across the Rio Salado River, linking South Phoenix (Big City) to transportation, housing, education, and job opportunities
More than $75 million for new pipes and facilities for the Lewis & Clark Rural Water System serving South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota. (Rural Middle America, Aging Farmlands, and Native American Lands are the dominant county types here.)
$146 million to build drinking water infrastructure for rural north-central Montana. (County types covered include Native American Lands and Graying America.)
$150 million to replace the I-10 Calcasieu River Bridge in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana (Military Post)
$292 million to Amtrak for Hudson Yards Concrete Casing to support the new passenger rail tunnel under the Hudson River (Big City)
More than $1.6 billion in Cincinnati, Ohio (Urban Suburb) and Covington, Kentucky (Middle Suburb) to upgrade the Brent Spence Bridge and construct a new bridge to improve traffic along I-71/I-75, a vital freight route from Canada to Florida

In Poor Condition

Of all the concerns about community infrastructure — underfunding, too much strain, poor condition, not enough access or inconvenience, and environmental hazards — poor condition was the top concern cited among the 13 community types where this question was asked. Nationally, 34% of Americans said infrastructure was poorly maintained or in poor condition. Communities in the South and Midwest stood out for highlighting this problem: Evangelical Hubs at 41%, the African American South at 42%, Middle Suburbs at 44%, and Working Class Country at 44%. It’s worth noting that Middle Suburbs in the Rust Belt have been stagnating since the 2000s with unions and industry moving out.

Underfunding

Underfunding was the next highest problem: 26% of Americans reported this as a significant concern. At the community level, the African American South, Evangelical Hubs, and Working Class Country popped noticeably higher at 32% and 34%, echoing the ratings above. Underfunding was much less of an issue in the middle-income LDS Enclaves at 18% and the upper-middle-income Exurbs at 20%. Both areas are growing with young families, according to the 2020 Census.

Too Much Strain

Eighteen percent of Americans said too much demand or strain (heavy traffic, not enough trains/buses, too many users, etc.) was a significant concern. At 26%, the LDS Enclaves stood out for having too much strain on community infrastructure. Perhaps not surprising, the dense Big Cities came in six points above the national average. Graying America was also above the national average, as people have relocated to these more rural areas in recent years. Last fall, our writer laid out this challenge unfolding at the Georgia-North Carolina border.

Not Enough Access

Not having enough access or being inconveniently located to infrastructure rated very low as a concern, never hitting 10% among Americans. The issue reached 9% in the stratified Big Cities. A mix of communities known for a range of incomes, education levels, races, and geographies — the African American South, Urban Suburbs, Exurbs, Evangelical Hubs, and Military Posts — posted an 8% figure.

Environmental Hazards

Environmental hazards or danger to public health was also not considered a significant problem to Americans, coming in at just 6% nationally. This concern was highest in the dense and stratified Big Cities at 10%. It stood at 8% in other more diverse suburbs and lower-income rural communities: the Urban Suburbs, African American South, and Evangelical Hubs. Most community types sat at 5% or below.

None of the Above

Forty percent of Americans reported none of these issues was a concern. In the LDS Enclaves, nearly half of residents, 49%, said none of these issues and in Rural Middle America, 47% said so.

African American South Aging Farmlands Big Cities College Towns Evangelical Hubs Exurbs Graying America Hispanic Centers LDS Enclaves Middle Suburbs Military Posts Native American Lands Rural Middle America Urban Suburbs Working Class Country

Vol. 3 2020-2021

Deaths of Despair Across America

The American Communities Project is undertaking a 30-month study of Deaths of Despair in its 15 community types.

Learn More

What Are Shared Values in Community?

by Dante Chinni April 24, 2024

As the nation navigates another tense election year, polls suggest the biggest issues before voters center on culture. Questions around abortion, immigration, and even trade really focus on what kind of nation voters want to live in — what do they value?

The American Communities Project delved into this question in its 2023 fragmentation survey with Ipsos, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Respondents were asked whether a variety of institutions shared their values.

The big finding: A lot of agreement, but agreement that seems built on skepticism and disillusionment. Across all the 15 community types that the ACP studies, there is little belief that any of the nation’s big institutions — big business, entertainment, the news media, and the federal government — share their values.

That’s a problematic finding in any survey. It suggests a lot of distrust. But considering the stark differences in the Project’s types (from small-town Rural Middle America to the dense Big Cities), it’s a surprising finding as well.

The same survey showed those 15 community types had markedly different opinions on issues such as guns, families, and faith — dissimilarities that clearly indicate different values. Yet, when people in those same communities looked at the nation’s big powerful institutions, the level of disapproval was surprisingly uniform.

What’s going on in the data? What we’re seeing may be akin to the uniform responses on the question of whether the nation is headed in right direction or off on the wrong track. That is, when people are asked about these big, complicated institutions, they focus on the things they do not like about them and disapprove of their values. (For instance, “federal government” may be heard as “Republicans” by some respondents and as “Democrats” by others.)

Regardless, the numbers are remarkable.

For all the groups and institutions below, the essential question was, “Do you think that the people who lead the following institutions or groups mostly share your values and views, or do they mostly have different values and views from you?”

The Entertainment Industry

Hollywood and the larger entertainment industry has long been a source of political controversy. Artists and filmmakers can sometimes push boundaries and lawmakers often push back. We saw a fight like this last year in Florida between Disney and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who accused the company of being too “woke.”

But the entertainment and movie industries don’t have huge support in the poll. In every one of the Project’s 15 community types, the number of people saying those industries “mostly have different values” far outweighs the number saying the industries “mostly share your values.”

The most urban and left-leaning types, the Big Cities and Urban Suburbs, are the most likely to see shared values, but the number for each is still below 30%. In nine of the 15 types, 50% or more say the entertainment and music industries mostly have different values.

The News Media

At this point, the news media are a well-known target of derision across the United States. Even as people increasingly burrow in with sources they trust, those same people tend to be critical of news outlets they feel represent “the other side.” Think of the partisan viewing differences between, say, Fox News and MSNBC.

Those attitudes certainly feel like the animus behind the “shared values” figures here.

Only one community type, the Big Cities, is above 20% on the idea of “mostly share your values.” And every community type is 50% or higher on “mostly have different values.”

The Federal Government

The shorthand for understanding the nation’s two big political parties is often described this way: One party favors using government power and policy, and one tries to limit the use of government. But again, on the question of shared values, it’s hard to find a lot of support for the federal government.

The Big Cities, which tend to vote heavily Democratic, are the most likely to have voters who say the federal government mostly shares their values, at 20%, but that’s a pretty low number. And 55% in Big Cities say the federal government mostly has different values. In 14 of the 15 types, 60% or more of respondents hold that view.

Big Business

What about the other side of the great American political divide — big business? The numbers are no better.

For decades, much of the rhetoric around American politics focused on business and taxes. The private sector has often been hailed as the source of “job creators” and, of course, as the economic engine of the nation. People on the political right, in particular, have been seen as allies of big business. Yet, the “shared values” numbers across the board in the ACP community types are quite low on big business.

The highest “shared values” number in any type is just 13% and that number shows up in the Big Cities and Urban Suburbs, communities that tend to vote Democratic, but also urban communities that tend to be the home of big businesses and their workers. It’s also worth noting that some of the most solidly Republican voting community types, the Evangelical Hubs and Working Class Country, have some of the highest numbers for “mostly have different values” when it comes to big business: 70% or higher.

Bright Spots?

That’s a lot of dour feelings across many kinds of places. Is there any institution or group with whom people feel they share values? Yes, across the 15 community types, people say they feel a sense of shared values with small or local business. (Note, the survey only asked this question in 13 of the 15 types because of time limitations.)

The responses on small and local business are the mirror image of the others. At least 50% in every community type say those business mostly share their values. While fewer than 20% say small or local businesses mostly have different values.

Again, that’s a pretty impressive amount of agreement, and it likely seems to be driven by one factor, proximity.

Most of the groups or institutions on the 2023 survey are big, faceless entities. What is the “entertainment industry” or “big business”? Those phrases can lead people to think about a lot of people, places, and things, many entities people may not support.

When respondents hear the phrase “local business” they may have a certain business or business owner in mind — people they know and with whom they have spent some time.

And that really gets to the heart of what the Project is measuring on this question and others. Ultimately, the ACP is exploring the realities people live in and how it can be hard to see outside our own bubbles, realities we have reinforced with choices about where we live and what media we consume.

“Local businesses” are entities that live within our respective bubbles, so shared values are easier to find. Outside our bubbles, trust is harder. And in a nation of 330 million people, that can be a problem. Personal and community bubbles can feel comfortable and safe, but they are not all-encompassing.

Vol. 3 2020-2021

Deaths of Despair Across America

The American Communities Project is undertaking a 30-month study of Deaths of Despair in its 15 community types.

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Culture

What Do Americans Say Are The Biggest Factors for Success?

by Ari Pinkus January 29, 2024

Hard work? Lucky breaks? Help from others? Support from society? The American Communities Project/Ipsos 2023 Survey asked more than 5,000 Americans to rank order these contributors to success in America. More than two-thirds of Americans, 68%, said hard work and grit was the No. 1 contributor to success. At least 59% in each of the 15 community types felt the same way. This signals Americans largely continue to believe the American Dream of working hard to get ahead operates today.

Hard Work and Grit

But geographical variations are evident, and the divide between the most urban and the most rural communities is glaring. In the most sparsely populated areas — Aging Farmlands and Native American Lands — nearly 80% said hard work and grit was the No. 1 contributor to success. Other rural areas, including Rural Middle America and Evangelical Hubs, 73% shared this view. In Big Cities, 59% said hard work was No. 1, and in Urban Suburbs and College Towns, 63% said so. In Urban Suburbs, multicultural, affluent communities teeming with young professionals, many have expressed that working hard is not enough to get ahead. In College Towns, many are weighed down by student loans and employment challenges after graduation.

Support from Society and Institutions

On the flip side, 16% of College Town residents said support from society and institutions was the No. 1 contributor to success — the most of all the county types. This may be because they experience institutional support daily. Diversified, stratified Big Cities were close behind at 15%. In the rural African American South, where the median Black population is 43%, 14% of residents felt society and institutional support was the No. 1 contributor to success. Compare that to rural Aging Farmlands and Evangelical Hubs, where 4% and 6% of residents said support from society and institutions was No. 1.

What may seem most unusual is the small percentage of Military Post residents, 6%, who said that support from society and institutions was the No. 1 factor for success, considering that many residents are employees of a prominent governmental institution, some for many years. However, the military has been beleaguered by two decades of war, and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have been under scrutiny at various points for not attending to the social and health challenges military personnel face.

Help from Others

Help from others as the No. 1 contributor to success was lower across the board, at 8%, but notably popped higher in Working Class Country at 14%. These less-diverse communities concentrated in Appalachia are known for a close-knit, helping culture. Native American Lands are also known for their helpful habits in community, but just 4% of residents here said help from others was the No. 1 contributor to success, the lowest of the 15 community types. These communities have long been underserved and riven with health, socioeconomic, and educational inequities over generations.

Lucky Breaks or Circumstances

Ten percent of Americans said lucky breaks or circumstances was the No. 1 contributor to success. Military Posts were highest at 14%, followed closely by Urban Suburbs and Big Cities at 13% each. Notably all three are known for their particularly diverse populations among American communities. At the other end of the spectrum, just 5% of residents in Native American Lands said lucky breaks or circumstances was No. 1.

Vol. 3 2020-2021

Deaths of Despair Across America

The American Communities Project is undertaking a 30-month study of Deaths of Despair in its 15 community types.

Learn More

Culture

Do Americans Want to Move? Probably Fewer Than You Think.

by Dante Chinni January 08, 2024

The freedom to move and find a better life has long been a core tenet of the promise of the United States, a key component in the ability to remake oneself and find success.

Yet, a survey from the American Communities Project finds that in most places, a majority of people are quite happy with where they live. And those most interested in finding new homes tend to be people who live in wealthier, more urban communities.

The findings come from the ACP’s massive 2023 survey of 5,000 adults spread across all the project’s 15 community types. The work, conducted by Ipsos with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sheds light on the nature of communities and tribalism in the United States as the 2024 election approaches.

Who Doesn’t Want to Move

Overall, the survey found 58% of Americans answered “no” to the question “If your finances and circumstances allowed, would you want to move to a different neighborhood or a different community?”

But the numbers varied widely by community type.

Perhaps most noteworthy in the chart above, there are six community types where more than 60% of residents said they would not move even if they could: the Aging Farmlands, Evangelical Hubs, Graying America, LDS Enclaves, Native American Lands, and Rural Middle America.

Those six types stand out for a few reasons.

First, for the most part, they are not hot spots for real estate. They are generally not growing very fast. The exception here are the LDS Enclaves, which are seeing population increases, but in part because of high birth rates. Some types are struggling economically. The median household income in each of them is below the national figure by $6,000 or more. (You can explore these data and other sets in the ACP’s Data Clearinghouse.)

Second, those six community types are among the most supportive of former President Donald Trump. He won all of them with at least 58% of the vote in 2020.

As the nation has grown more politically and culturally divided, much of the national conversation has turned to questions of tribalism. Indeed, those divisions are at the heart of the ACP’s work as we study American fragmentation. The numbers here suggest that most people in these community types are not looking to move out to wealthier, more urban environs. They like where they live and, one presumes, their communities’ cultures and views.

More Open to Moving

On the other side of the coin, there are four community types where 48% or more residents said they would move if they could: the African American South, Big Cities, Exurbs, and Urban Suburbs.

That set of types is more complicated. The African American South counties tend to be marked by fairly stark racial divides and lower incomes. The Big Cities are densely populated, diverse, and known for deep socioeconomic divides. The Urban Suburbs and Exurbs, on the other hand, tend to be affluent and well-educated.

The desire to move in these different communities (and the desire is still not especially intense) may be the result of different factors. In some places, such as the African American South, it may come from a craving for a better life or set of circumstances. In others, such as the Exurbs and Urban Suburbs, it may result from greater comfort with the idea of moving in general. Many of those communities are full of transplants. And in the case of the Big Cities, which are a mix of rich and poor, it may be some of both.

Regardless of the reason, however, people in those communities seem to have weaker ties to the place they live, as evidenced by their populations’ desire to move. But, on the whole, regardless of the kind of place they live, people do not express a compelling need to find a new home.

The Big Sort

In 2008, journalist Bill Bishop wrote The Big Sort, a book that explored the idea of how the nation overall was becoming more diverse than it ever had been, but at the local level we were increasingly living around like-minded souls. The ACP has found similar trends in its work.

One big question in those findings was what was driving the sorting. Was it driven by groups of people who had the ability to move, while others could not?

These data suggest the forces driving the shifts are not that simple. They indicate we are living near people who see the world the way we do — something we saw evidence for in the main release of this survey data — and, for the most part, we like the places we have chosen to live. People haven’t been left behind; they like their friends and neighbors. For the most part, they like the bubbles in which they live.

That suggests that getting beyond them and finding compromise may be a serious challenge.

African American South Aging Farmlands Big Cities Evangelical Hubs Exurbs Graying America LDS Enclaves Native American Lands Rural Middle America

Vol. 3 2020-2021

Deaths of Despair Across America

The American Communities Project is undertaking a 30-month study of Deaths of Despair in its 15 community types.

Learn More

Education

Americans Across Communities Share Concerns About Their Public Schools

by Ari Pinkus January 02, 2024

From pandemic woes to social challenges to culture clashes to educator shortages, public schools have been working under extreme stress these past four years. This is showing up in the way Americans perceive their neighborhood public-school system, according to the American Communities Project/Ipsos 2023 Survey. More than a third of Americans gave their public schools a fair or poor rating. Ratings were worse in rural communities of color. Across all 15 community types, underfunding or underinvestment was the top concern voiced, followed by too much demand or strain, such as staff shortages.

Parsing Grim Perspectives in Rural Communities

Nationally, 25% of Americans gave their public-school system the rating “only fair,” and 10% rated it “poor.” On the positive end, 14% of Americans said their system was “excellent” and 44% said it was “good,” according to the survey.

Chronically underinvested communities of color in the rural Plains, South, Southwest, and Alaska — the Native American Lands and the African American South — were the most dissatisfied with their public-school system: Just 42% of Native American Lands said it was excellent or good; 43% of African American South communities said the same.

At the same time, both community types had the largest shares of residents who said their neighborhood public-school systems were poor. In the young Native American Lands, 22% called their school system poor. In the African American South, 17% said so. Working Class Country, mostly white, low-income communities concentrated in Appalachia, was close behind, with 16% of residents rating their public-school system as poor.

Comparatively, in Hispanic Centers, filled with residents under 18 and often in underserved rural areas, 51% said their system was excellent or good, while 29% said it was only fair and 13% said it was poor.

Top Concerns About School System: Funding and Staffing

As cultural clashes in public schools routinely grabbed the news headlines, Americans across communities were most worried about underfunding or underinvestment of their public-school system. Overall, 37% of Americans cited this as a significant concern, according to the American Communities Project/Ipsos 2023 Survey.

Several community types of diverse geographies and demographics reached above the average. In the African American South, 42% of residents were concerned their public schools are underfunded. LDS Enclaves, middle-income, young, Mormon strongholds in the interior West, came in the highest at 46%. Utah has four of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S., and 28 of the 29 counties in Utah are classified as LDS Enclaves. Economically stratified Big Cities and lower-income Working Class Country were tied at 41%. Middle Suburbs, often stagnating communities around Rust Belt cities, as well as more transient College Towns and Military Posts came in at 38%.

In the related question of whether there’s too much demand or strain (not available when you need it, staff/worker shortages, etc.), 27% of Americans said this was a significant concern. Again, some community types surpassed this average. Highest were the LDS Enclaves at 38%; Military Posts, with many government employees and transient residents, and diverse Big Cities were tied at 31%.

Inexperience or insufficient training, which has drawn more attention in the churning, post-pandemic environment, was a significant concern among residents in the Evangelical Hubs at 25% and the African American South at 24%. These areas in the South and Midwest are also known for lower educator salaries and poor infrastructure. The national average stood at 18%. Most community types hovered around the average. The exception was Rural Middle America, middle-income, homogeneous communities across the country’s upper tier, where 10% of residents said inexperience was a significant concern.

Not Significant Concerns: Racial and Gender Discrimination

Notwithstanding the national media's focus on racial and gender bias or discrimination in public schools, just 10% of Americans said racial bias or discrimination in their neighborhood public schools was a significant concern. In the African American South and Big Cities, home to larger populations of Black residents, 16% and 14% residents held this view. Gender bias or discrimination was less of a concern, with 7% of Americans citing the issue as significant. In the affluent Exurbs and lower-income Evangelical Hubs, two less racially diverse community types where there have been some intense cultural battles, 9% of residents said gender bias or discrimination was a significant concern.

It’s also worth noting that 39% of Americans said none of the issues above — underfunding, strain, inexperience, racial discrimination, or gender discrimination — was a significant concern in their neighborhood public-school system. For a mix of suburban and rural communities — the Urban Suburbs, Rural Middle America, and Exurbs — at least 44% of residents held this view.

Vol. 3 2020-2021

Deaths of Despair Across America

The American Communities Project is undertaking a 30-month study of Deaths of Despair in its 15 community types.

Learn More

Economics

How Americans Are Perceiving and Feeling Inflation

by Dante Chinni December 11, 2023

As 2024 approaches, the U.S. economy has become a complicated story with one dominant plotline: inflation. But a closer look at data from the recent American Communities Project/Ipsos Survey suggests a more generalized anxiety around prices than a serious hardship, at least for now.

Through several key metrics — GDP growth, unemployment, the Dow Jones Industrial Average — the current state of the economy looks solid to very good, but Americans are generally feeling negative about their economic futures. The driving element is the cost of things. Americans cited inflation as the top local concern. At least 40% in every community type singled out inflation, according to the American Communities Project’s recent survey of 5,000 Americans across all 15 types.

But the survey went further on inflation with a series of questions about “serious problems” due to prices. These questions yielded a very different set of responses.

Serious Financial Problems

On the broadest measure of economic pain: “In the last year, have you experienced serious financial problems caused by recent price increases?”, the numbers indicate some challenges, particularly in some communities. But the figure lags far behind the feelings about inflation as a community concern.

There’s a range to those numbers, but it’s not massive. On one end, 23% in the African American South say they have experienced “serious financial problems.” On the other end, 37% say the same in Working Class Country.

To be clear, anyone experiencing serious problems due to inflation is noteworthy. It helps explain some of the nation’s economic angst. And the 37% figure shows real challenges in Working Class Country communities. On average, those communities have higher unemployment rates and lower incomes than most communities.

At first blush, the “serious problem” numbers don’t seem to align with larger concerns about inflation. The “serious problem” figures in both the African American South and Working Class Country are 20 percentage points below the “most important issue” numbers in those communities. But the differences between those figures may show the difference between what people are personally experiencing (serious pain) and what people see around them (top community issue).

In other words, if 37% of people in a community have experienced serious problems with rising costs over the last year, it may make sense that 58% of the people in that community see inflation as the biggest issue of concern.

What’s Causing the Pain?

A mix of issues is behind the serious problems those communities are experiencing, according to the survey.

If there is one relative bright spot in the data, it may be that rising costs have not impacted housing as much as other aspects of living. Having a hard time making ends meet is never a good thing, but when it affects whether you have a roof over your head, the problems can shatter a household or a community.

Nationally, only 13% of Americans said rising costs led to serious problems paying their rent or mortgage. One might argue than any number is too high, but that’s still 14 points lower than the overall national serious problem figure. And while the number is still highest in Working Class Country, at 21%, the figure is still 16 points lower than the overall serious problem number of 37%.

People in most communities said being able to buy food and gas and other household needs was more of a challenge, however.

Nationally, 22% of those surveyed said they had “serious problems” buying those needs. On this particular question, the Evangelical Hubs stood out with 31% saying they had a hard time affording those necessities. Working Class Country was close behind at 27%.

The largely prosperous Exurbs were the lowest on this question, with only 17% saying they had serious problems. That might be something of a surprise considering how there is generally more driving in those far-flung suburban locales. But the Exurbs tend to have more residents with college degrees and perhaps more employees who can “work from home” in the post-pandemic world.

Credit card bills and loans are another big source of inflation pain in the ACP types.

Nationally, 21% those surveyed said those types of bills were sources of serious financial problems. Working Class Country again stood out on the high-end respondents, with 30% saying they experienced serious problems paying those bills.

On the low end were the College Towns, Graying America, and Middle Suburbs, all with 18% saying they had serious problems with those bills. College Town residents may not yet be paying back student loans they took out. Residents of Graying America may be past the most acquisitive times in their lives. And Middle Suburb communities tend to be more truly middle-class and less free-spending than other places.

A Political Meaning?

As in any survey, there is also the question of respondent bias. Increasingly, polls show that people’s views on the economy are tied to their political views. Democrats tend to hold a bleaker view of the economy when there is a Republican in the White House and vice versa. There may be some of that in these data.

On most of these questions, Working Class Country and the Evangelical Hubs say they are feeling the most pain, and those communities tend to vote heavily Republican. That’s not to say people in those communities are experiencing serious financial problems related to inflation. But the fact that they are consistently high on every issue is noteworthy.

For instance, it’s interesting that respondents in Working Class Country say they have experienced more serious financial problems around housing than respondents in Big Cities, urban places notorious for high rents and real estate prices.

It is a point worth more study.

Vol. 3 2020-2021

Deaths of Despair Across America

The American Communities Project is undertaking a 30-month study of Deaths of Despair in its 15 community types.

Learn More

Culture

Supporting Community — a Way of Life Across America

by Ari Pinkus November 27, 2023

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping,’” Fred Rogers once told his “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” audience.

America continues to be a nation teeming with helpers. Very rural county types have the highest helping rates. In both the young, more diverse Native American Lands and the older homogenous Aging Farmlands, 93% of residents said they helped a relative, neighbor, or friend in their community in the past year, according to the recent American Communities Project/Ipsos Study.

This helping question was asked slightly differently for the other county types. Among the 13 remaining types, 73% of Americans helped a relative, friend, or neighbor in their community with a small task in the past year, and 48% helped with a large task in the same period.

In the LDS Enclaves, Mormon strongholds in Utah and Idaho, 66% said they helped with a large task, with 28% saying they did so in the past month. In another strongly religiously affiliated county type, Evangelical Hubs, composed of 375 counties in the South and Midwest with large numbers of Evangelical Christians, 52% said they helped a relative, friend, or neighbor in their community with a large task, with about 30% saying they did so in the past month. It was the same in Rural Middle America and Graying America, rural, older, middle-income, and less diverse county types.

A clear majority helped members of their community with smaller tasks. More than 60% of residents in every single community type said they helped a relative, friend, or neighbor with a small task in the past year. In Big Cities and Urban Suburbs, where people of many different backgrounds interact daily, 65% and 69% of residents said they helped with a small task. In the Big Cities, 35% helped in the past month, and in Urban Suburbs, 42% helped in the same period.

Other less diverse suburbs had higher percentages of small helpers. For the middle-income Middle Suburbs, it was 77%, with 42% helping in the past month. For more affluent Exurbs, it was 71%, with 41% helping in the past month. In College Towns, full of transient residents of varying ages, 76% said they helped a relative, friend, or neighbor with a small task, and 42% of them said they helped in the past month.

Volunteering

Nationwide, about 50% of Americans said they volunteered for a church/religious center or a non-religious charity in the past year, according to the recent American Communities Project/Ipsos Study.

Outpacing the national average were very rural county types concentrated in the Plains, the Southwest, and Alaska. In lower-income Native American Lands, 62% said they volunteered for a church, religious center, or non-religious charity activity. In middle-income Aging Farmlands, 59% said the same.

For the 13 remaining county types, the survey measured church and non-church volunteering separately. Volunteering for religious entities was highest in rural types of various geographies, races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. In the LDS Enclaves, where church missionary work is woven into daily life, 44% said they volunteered at church or a religious center, with 28% reporting they did so in the past month. In the lower-income African American South, where churches are pillars and church-going is central, 30% said they volunteered at church or a religious center, 20% in the past month. It’s a similar pattern in the middle-income communities of Rural Middle America across the country’s upper tier: 29% of residents said they volunteered at church or a religious center, with 14% doing so in the past month.

In non-church charity activities, the LDS Enclaves still came out on top. Here, 31% of residents said they volunteered for non-church charities in the past year. Just behind these Mormon-heavy communities were the Middle Suburbs in the industrial Midwest at 29%, and 10% of Middle Suburbanites volunteered in the past month. Volunteering at non-church charities, the multicultural, affluent Urban Suburbs came in tied with older, more homogeneous Rural Middle America at 28%.

Donating

Overall, more than 50% of Americans said they donated to a church or charitable organization in the past year. Percentages were highest in the most rural county types: Aging Farmlands at 79% and Native American Lands at 75%, according to the American Communities Project/Ipsos Survey. These county types have different socioeconomic conditions. For example, in the Aging Farmlands, the median household income is $56,623. In the Native American Lands, it’s $47,266. The national average is $69,717. Child poverty stands at 16% in the Aging Farmlands and 30% in the Native American Lands.

Several notches above the national average were LDS Enclaves and Rural Middle America, with 60% saying they donated in the past year. In the LDS Enclaves, where the median household income is $63,576 and contributing can be part of church expectations, 38% of residents donated in the past month. In Rural Middle America, 35% did. In these 628 counties, the median household income is $61,285.

A variety of county types were situated in the mid-50 percent range, showing how donating is part of the American experience, irrespective of geography, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic circumstance.

In lower-income Evangelical Hubs, where the median household income is $47,083, a formidable 57% donated in the past year, with 36% of residents contributing in the past month.
Middle-income Graying America, too, clocked in at 57% in the past 12 months.
In the Middle Suburbs and College Towns, 56% of residents donated to a church or charitable organization in the past year.
In the African American South, where the median household income is $42,212, 54% of residents said they donated in the past year. It was the same percentage in the Exurbs, where the median household income is almost double at $80,286.

Vol. 3 2020-2021

Deaths of Despair Across America

The American Communities Project is undertaking a 30-month study of Deaths of Despair in its 15 community types.

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Culture

Understanding Gun Violence and Views by Community

by Ari Pinkus November 20, 2023

By the numbers this has been another terrible year of mass shootings in America, with more than 600 so far in 2023, according to the independent nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, which tracks these events in nearly real time. On its website, Gun Violence Archive states, “Our definition of gun violence is intended to be fully inclusionary of disparate elements of gun related incidents…. GVA uses a purely statistical threshold to define mass shooting based ONLY on the numeric value of 4 or more shot or killed, not including the shooter.”

Since the widely-covered mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, that killed 18 people and injured 13 others in late October, news media outlets have presented new angles and insights on this persistent challenge. Consider The New York Times’s “Army Ammunition Plant Is Tied to Mass Shootings Across the U.S,” CNN’s “She led the National School Walkout after the Parkland mass shooting. Then she left America,” Breitbart’s “CNN Claims 525 ‘Mass Shootings’ for 2023 Using Misleading Data,” and The Washington Post’s “Terror on Repeat” and companion piece “We spent more than a year examining the AR-15’s role in America. Here’s what we learned.”

Now, the American Communities Project homes in on the geographic distribution of mass shootings and how this intersects with issue importance and gun culture in America. The Northeast, Upper Midwest, South, and Southwest were more adversely affected than other areas in 2023, based on GVA statistics. Our analysis shows that more diverse communities had a greater number of mass shootings and made up a greater percentage of the total. Crime or gun violence ranks as a top issue for urban-oriented as well as diverse communities, including the African American South, Big Cities, Urban Suburbs, and College Towns, according to the recent American Communities Project/Ipsos Study.

It may be unsurprising that large, diverse, stratified Big City counties, home to 81.2 million people, have seen the most mass shootings in 2023. The number was 242 as of November 12 and accounted for 40% of America's mass shootings.
There were 92 mass shootings in the multicultural, more affluent Urban Suburbs, making up 15% of the total. Roughly 70.2 million live in these dense suburbs.
There were also 91 in the African American South, accounting for another 15% of the total. This is perhaps the most surprising as African American South counties are much more rural, with 13.1 million residents. Racial diversity is higher with a median Black population of 43%.
In College Towns, with many young residents and people of different backgrounds colliding daily, there were 50 mass shootings, accounting for 8% of the total. Nearly 25 million live in these youth bastions.
In Hispanic Centers, where more than 17.4 million live and about 53% identify as Hispanic, there were 30 mass shootings, making up 5% of the total.

In our recent survey, African American South communities said crime or gun violence was tied for the top issue in their local community and the No. 1 issue in the nation. African American South residents ranked crime or gun violence far and away the highest of the ACP's 15 types. Some counties saw multiple shootings so far this year. For example, there have been 11 mass shootings in Shelby County, Tennessee, an African American South community that's home to the city of Memphis. There were five in Jefferson County, Alabama, home to Birmingham; and four in Jefferson County, Arkansas.

In the Urban Suburbs, crime or gun violence was a No. 2 issue at the local and national level, while the percentage of residents who rated it a top issue was lower than in the African American South, according to the American Communities Project/Ipsos Study. Again this concern is understandable when digging into the data. Some counties were rocked by multiple events this year. There were six mass shootings in St. Louis County, Missouri, five in Broward County, Florida, including three in Fort Lauderdale and one on Hollywood Beach. Five mass shootings took place in Cincinnati, the largest city in Hamilton County. There were also five in Gilford County, North Carolina.

In the Big Cities, crime or gun violence also came in No. 2 as a national and local issue in the American Communities Project/Ipsos Study. The uptick in crime and gun violence has been widely covered and experienced in these places. Some cities have had many mass shootings from January to mid-November, including 19 in Los Angeles County, California; 18 in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; 10 in Harris County, Texas, home to Houston; and eight in Hennepin, Minnesota, home in Minneapolis.

In the College Towns, crime or gun violence again ranks No. 2 at the local and national levels. College Towns are filled with young and transient residents as well as long-timers. Ten percent of the population is between age 20 and 24, part of Generation Z. Gen Z has been dubbed "the Mass Shooting Generation" because they have grown up with school shootings and active shooter drills. This year so far, there have been four mass shootings in Ingham, Michigan, including a prominent shooting at Michigan State University in February. Three have taken place in Richland County, South Carolina, home to the University of South Carolina and smaller colleges.

While gun violence is a fact of life in many areas, many say the right to own a firearm is crucial to what it means to be an American, according to the American Communities Project/Ipsos Study. The majority of residents in several rural county types — the Aging Farmlands, Evangelical Hubs, Native American Lands, Rural Middle America, and Working Class Country — share this view. However, it is an issue that very much divides Americans; it is the minority view in the community types coping with the effects of gun violence on a regular basis. The varied views and experiences further illustrate the way Americans live in vastly different subcultures within the country.

For some personal views, visit our video of Americans in different counties describing what the Second Amendment means to them.

Vol. 3 2020-2021

Deaths of Despair Across America

The American Communities Project is undertaking a 30-month study of Deaths of Despair in its 15 community types.

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Media

How Top Issues Compare to Cable News Viewership

by Dante Chinni November 09, 2023

One of the biggest findings in the recently released American Communities Project opinion survey was the stark differences between the top local and national issues, particularly in some community types. Issues that were viewed as crucial in local terms, faded nationally, and issues that were not big locally ranked much higher as national concerns.

One big possible driver of those differences is how and where people get their news. The ACP, working with Comscore, has a way of measuring that in each of the 15 community types. For this analysis we looked at the ratings in each of the 15 types for four news channels: CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and Newsmax. There are many ways communities keep up on the news, of course, but for this first analysis the ACP chose the cable channels that only focus on news.

The numbers reveal clear differences in where people in each of the communities turn for their news. And while those four outlets are far from an exhaustive list of news sources, they offer a look at the habits around the cable news channel landscape.

What the survey found

The differences between the local and national issues of concern are noteworthy because, to some extent, they reveal differences between what people experience in their lives every day and what they learn about through other sources.

After all, local issues are things people can see and hear around them. National issues require at least some amount of outside narrative. No one knows what is happening tens or hundreds or thousands of miles away, without someone telling them, either through news media or social media or friends and family. And where people in different communities go for those outside narratives can be crucial to their understanding of them.

The local/national issue split showed up on a number of issues in a number of communities.

In College Towns, for instance, there were big disparities around homelessness. As a local issue, 28% of those surveyed in the College Towns listed homelessness among the top three issues of concern. It was the second most important local issue overall. But 9% of the people in the College Towns place it among the top three issues nationally. The data suggest a difference in what these residents see and feel in their daily lives and what they see from outside sources.

The reverse was true with “immigration” in the Evangelical Hubs, places with large numbers of white Evangelical Christians. Only 10% of residents saw immigration as a top three issue locally, but when the frame was flipped to national issues, 33% saw immigration as a top three issue, a more than three-fold jump. And that is in community type that is overwhelming white, non-Hispanic, and with small immigrant populations, as the ACP knows from other research. (You can explore those data points in the ACP’s Data Clearinghouse.) That suggests an outside force driving the narrative in those communities.

And the Evangelical Hubs weren’t alone in that finding. Other rural, largely white communities showed the same local/national split on immigration: Working Class Country, Rural Middle America, and Graying America (communities mostly not near the U.S.-Mexico border).

Who Watches What

Comscore’s data, which captures direct viewing from an average of 1-in-3 homes nationwide, sheds some light on where those communities and others go for cable news. The numbers represent the average number of TV households in each community that are tuned to each news channel across all parts of the day. There are noteworthy differences.

The point here is not the overall numbers for each. For instance, as the highest rated news channel, Fox News has the highest ratings score across all the types.

The numbers worth noting are the differences between the types. For instance, the Aging Farmlands have the highest ratings numbers of all the types for Fox News and Newsmax. The Big Cities have the highest ratings numbers for CNN and MSNBC.

But that’s just a quick, high-level reading of the data. There are more complicated findings around some communities.

For instance, the Exurbs and Military Posts both lean solidly Republican in terms of their voting habits, but their viewing habits among the big four cable networks are more nuanced. Their ratings sit in the middle of the pack among the 15 types for all four channels. And in both those communities, immigration rises as a concern on the national issues question, but it doesn’t crack the top two issues at the national or local level.

The same is true for the Middle Suburbs, located around the industrial Midwest, which have swung Republican in recent years. Their viewing habits are more mixed, scoring in the middle or lower for ratings among all the news channels, and their concerns about immigration also don’t skyrocket at the national level.

The African American South, meanwhile, scores low for viewing Fox News and Newsmax, but not especially high for watching CNN or MSNBC. In general, those communities seem to be smaller national cable news consumers, and their local and national issue concerns look somewhat similar — both are dominated by inflation and crime, with everything else trailing far behind.

Graying America, on the other hand, home to older Americans and many retirees, seems to be home to more cable news viewers across the board. The communities score on the higher side on the ratings chart for channels with a range of ideological views, including Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. And their national issue list shows big jumps for both crime and immigration compared to their local issues.

To be fair, cable news is just one way of receiving information in 2023 America. Broadcast networks, social media, and print outlets (news which we wrote about last week) all play important roles. But in the broadest sense, these viewership numbers suggest that in some communities, cable news may play a role in the way issues are perceived at the national level or reinforce already-present narratives around them.

And, in a broader sense, Comscore believes these findings suggest that the source of news and other media information that individuals choose to consume may offer a probative indicator of their ideological leanings, including how they might vote on given issues. The firm believes that real-time insights from media consumption might offer predictive indications on the outcome of elections, and that these insights might possibly be used to calibrate polling predictions which have been increasingly off the mark.

At the very least, the media consumption data, combined with the ACP's survey offers important insights into how communities receive the messages they do about the world outside the bubbles in which they live. The ACP will be exploring the connection between these different inputs when we head out into the field in the coming weeks.

Vol. 3 2020-2021

Deaths of Despair Across America

The American Communities Project is undertaking a 30-month study of Deaths of Despair in its 15 community types.

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Media

Where Local News Is Scarce — and Why It Matters

by Ari Pinkus November 02, 2023

As information warfare roils the global landscape, local news outlets in the U.S. continue to dwindle. Two-thirds of America’s 3,142 counties do not have a daily newspaper, according to Northwestern University’s report “The State of Local News in 2022.” And an American Communities Project analysis of the data finds the most rural county types are the most lacking.

More than 200 counties (6%) are news deserts with no local newspaper at all. An absence of local news is tied to lower voter participation as well as increases in corruption, misinformation, polarization, and distrust in media, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism report.

Our new American Communities Project/Ipsos survey released in October indeed found that media distrust is very high among residents across the 15 community types. In response to the statement “The mainstream media is more interested in making money than telling the truth,” 75% of Americans agree. More than 80% of residents in the rural, less diverse communities of Working Class County, LDS Enclaves, Rural Middle America, and Evangelical Hubs share this view.

Our survey also found polarization to be an important issue facing the country across communities. Nationally, more than a quarter of Americans say it is a significant concern. In some rural and urban communities, it's around 30% of residents.

Rural America — running through a diversity of communities in the South, Appalachia, the Plains, the interior West, the Southwest, and Alaska — suffers the most from a lack of local news sources. Digging into the American Communities Project types shows lower-income, less educated communities particularly affected.

Of uppermost concern are Native American Lands in the Great Plains, Southwest, and Alaska, where 93% of the 45 counties do not have a daily newspaper. These younger, disinvested communities suffer from extreme economic, education, and health inequities. In Aging Farmlands, middle-income, mostly white older agricultural communities in the Central and Great Plains, 94% of the 268 counties don’t have a daily newspaper. Other historically underinvested communities are also underserved with local news. This includes 72% of the 178 lower-income Hispanic Centers, where fewer residents have college degrees. In the lower-income, less educated, mostly white Evangelical Hubs, 85% of the 375 counties don’t have a daily newspaper. In the nearby African American South, 76% of the 272 counties don't have a daily, and in Working Class Country concentrated in Appalachia, 68% of its 280 counties don't have one.

It may be more surprising that 56% of Exurban counties have no daily newspaper, given their higher incomes and education levels. However, many Exurbs are satellites of larger metro areas and may have access to newspapers in the Big Cities, Urban Suburbs, and/or Middle Suburbs.

News Deserts — Counties with No Local Newspaper

Nationally, news deserts are found in 204 counties. Native American Lands fare the worst. The percentage in LDS Enclaves without a newspaper is also high, though these communities have more economic advantages and closer social ties. Even so, local newspapers in smaller communities continue to be in danger of closing, a worrying sign for civic engagement and government accountability.

It's perhaps not surprising that Big Cities, with all their resources and histories, do not have news deserts. The only other counties without news deserts are the Urban Suburbs, multicultural, more affluent, more educated communities ringing cities. It's worth noting that it was an Urban Suburb weekly newspaper on Long Island, New York, The North Shore Leader, that initially broke the story about the biography and resume fabrications of now-U.S. Rep. George Santos (R) during the 2022 campaign. The paper endorsed the Democratic candidate as a result, writing: "This newspaper would like to endorse a Republican for US Congress in NY3 (Oyster Bay, N Hempstead, NE Queens). But the GOP nominee - George Santos - is so bizarre, unprincipled and sketchy that we cannot." However, this was not amplified in the wider news media. Santos is now facing 23 federal charges, including for conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and credit card fraud. Santos has pleaded not guilty. His trial is set to begin in September 2024.

Vol. 3 2020-2021

Deaths of Despair Across America

The American Communities Project is undertaking a 30-month study of Deaths of Despair in its 15 community types.

Learn More

New Infrastructure Projects

In Poor Condition

Underfunding

Too Much Strain

Not Enough Access

Environmental Hazards

None of the Above

Unemployment Continues Increasing Across America

How Americans Are Feeling Inflation in 2025

Deaths of Despair Across America

The Entertainment Industry

The News Media

The Federal Government

Big Business

Bright Spots?

Deaths of Despair Across America

Hard Work and Grit

Support from Society and Institutions

Help from Others

Lucky Breaks or Circumstances

Surprising Consistency on a Path to Citizenship for Long-Term Immigrants

What Do Americans Know About Trump 2.0? A Lot.

Deaths of Despair Across America

Who Doesn’t Want to Move

More Open to Moving

The Big Sort

Surprising Consistency on a Path to Citizenship for Long-Term Immigrants

What Do Americans Know About Trump 2.0? A Lot.

Deaths of Despair Across America

Parsing Grim Perspectives in Rural Communities

Top Concerns About School System: Funding and Staffing

Not Significant Concerns: Racial and Gender Discrimination

Tailgate Talk Across America — On College Value, Diversity, and AI

Universities As Economic Powerhouses for Communities

Deaths of Despair Across America

Serious Financial Problems

What’s Causing the Pain?

A Political Meaning?

Unemployment Continues Increasing Across America

How Americans Are Feeling Inflation in 2025

Deaths of Despair Across America

Volunteering

Donating

Surprising Consistency on a Path to Citizenship for Long-Term Immigrants

What Do Americans Know About Trump 2.0? A Lot.

Deaths of Despair Across America

Surprising Consistency on a Path to Citizenship for Long-Term Immigrants

What Do Americans Know About Trump 2.0? A Lot.

Deaths of Despair Across America

What the survey found

Who Watches What

As Journalists Are in the Crosshairs, What Do People Know About Who They Are and What They Do?

Americans Largely Not Supporting, Trusting, or Reading Traditional News

Deaths of Despair Across America

News Deserts — Counties with No Local Newspaper

As Journalists Are in the Crosshairs, What Do People Know About Who They Are and What They Do?

Americans Largely Not Supporting, Trusting, or Reading Traditional News

Deaths of Despair Across America