Updated 12:00 PM | Nov. 14, 2022

How Election Week 2022 Went Down

Filed under 2022 Election

Holly Fuong

Americans Are More Concerned About Inflation Than Ever

While the issues ranked second and third in terms of importance have changed throughout the summer, inflation has consistently been the top issue on voters’ minds.

MICHAEL SILUK / UCG / UNIVERSAL GROUP / GETTY IMAGES

This April, FiveThirtyEight began a partnership with Ipsos on a series of polls to help us better understand Americans’ views on some key issues as we headed into the midterms. Following the same group of about 2,000 Americans, our FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos survey, conducted using Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel, asked respondents to identify which issues they thought were most important for the country (selecting up to three from a list of 20). “Inflation or increasing costs” was always top of mind for Americans across all six waves of our polling. Over the summer, inflation reached its highest rate since 1982, and Americans were faced with record-high gas prices and ever-increasing prices for food and rent. Many families have adjusted their spending habits and are feeling pessimistic about their own financial situations. This sentiment has carried over to Americans’ concerns about the country: In our last wave from October, 65 percent of all respondents ranked “inflation or increasing costs” among their most important issues — the highest share of any wave. While inflation has been a key issue for self-identified Republicans (79 percent of whom said it was among the most important issues in this wave), the latest wave’s increase was driven largely by Democrats (52 percent) and independents (64 percent), both of whom also ranked inflation first.

Inflation has become increasingly top of mind for Americans

Share of Americans who said “inflation or increasing costs” was among the most important issues facing the country in six waves of a FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos survey, overall and by party, April-October 2022

Wave	Overall	Democrat	Republican	Indep/Other
		Party identity
1	52%	42%	65%	50%
2	56	40	75	55
3	62	49	81	58
4	61	50	79	57
5	54	40	72	51
6	65	52	79	64

Among likely voters, the story was very similar. In our latest wave, one key difference is that while inflation still ranked highest overall (63 percent), and among Republicans (77 percent) and independents (65 percent) specifically, it ranked second among Democrats (43 percent). Likely Democratic voters were more concerned about “political extremism or polarization” (59 percent) than inflation. All that said, we’ll have to keep an eye out for whether these issues — especially inflation — will play a role in how Americans vote tonight.

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