As 2022 nears an end, nearly all Americans (93%) in the latest Economist/YouGov Poll say they have felt the impact of high inflation on their own life and few (18%) expect a lower rate of inflation in the next six months.
YouGov added "inflation/prices" as a response option to its list of Americans' most important issues in a mid-July Economist/YouGov poll. Every week since then, inflation and prices has remained the option that the highest share of Americans find most important — though the percentage naming it their top issue this week has dropped to a new low of 17%, down from the peak of 27% in a mid-November poll.
Amid expectations of high inflation in the months to come, 72% of Americans say they definitely or probably have enough money to pay this month's bills. That is lower among Americans with a family income under $50,000 annually (just 63% say this) and 18- to 29-year-olds (64%). More than one-third of Americans who celebrate a winter holiday say they are going to spend less (38%) on holiday expenses this year compared to previous years. Two in five will keep their holiday spending the same and just 14% are spending more.
Americans who are celebrating a winter holiday on a family income under $50,000 annually are more likely than people with a family income of $50,000 or more to say that they will spend less this year than in previous years.
— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
See the toplines and crosstabs from the Economist/YouGov poll conducted on December 17 - 20, 2022 among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens.
Methodology: Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to June 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (34% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
Image: Adobe Stock (wifesun)
