How many Americans are worried about the economy? Poll finds big shift from 2024

Brendan Rascius, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) on Apr 3, 2025

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The majority of Americans now have “a great deal” of worry about the U.S. economy, a new poll found.

Most are also greatly concerned about inflation, health care, federal spending and Social Security, according to the latest Gallup poll, which comes during the first few months of President Donald Trump’s second term.

The results mark a shift from 2024, when fewer Americans expressed concern about all five of these issues. At the same time, worries about homelessness, crime and illegal immigration have lessened, among other issues.

Here is a breakdown of the results.

Worry about key issues

The poll — conducted March 3-16 with 1,002 U.S. adults — asked respondents how much they personally worry about 16 key issues.

The economy was the number one issue causing Americans to lose sleep, with 60% expressing a great deal of concern.

The availability and affordability of health care came in second, with 59% saying they had a great deal of worry. This was followed by inflation (56%), federal spending and the budget deficit (53%) and Social Security (52%).

Half or less of respondents expressed a high degree of worry about the remaining 11 issues, according to the poll, which has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

The issues that ranked as the least concerning were race relations (33%), availability and affordability of energy (35%), unemployment (36%) drug use (39%) and illegal immigration (40%).

Shifts in concern

The level of worry about the most pressing issues has increased since Gallup’s last poll on this topic in 2024, conducted during the end of then President Joe Biden’s tenure.

The share expressing a great deal of worry about the economy, in particular, has surged, rising 8 points from 52% in 2024.

“This is the third consecutive reading of this measure that matches the high point in the trend, which was first recorded in 2011,” according to Gallup.

Similarly, worry about health care has risen 8 points from 51%.

And the share telegraphing a great deal of worry about Social Security rose 9 points from 43%. Concerns about Social Security are now at their highest level in 15 years.

Meanwhile, worries about other issues have ebbed in the past year.

For example, in 2024, 53% of respondents expressed a great deal of worry about crime, compared to 47% in the latest poll.

And in 2024, 48% said they had a high degree of worry about illegal immigration. That figure now stands at 40%, marking an 8 point difference.

Partisan differences

The shift in concern is largely due to Democrats expressing more worry now that Trump is president.

A larger share of Democrats and Democratic-leaning respondents now express a great deal of worry about 11 of 14 issues (two were not asked about in 2024).

For example, 34% more of them now say they have a great deal of concern about the economy, and 30% more now express the same level of concern about Social Security.

Republicans, in contrast, are now less worried about nearly every issue, with the biggest drops in concern coming on inflation (18% less), the possibility of terrorist attacks (17% less), the economy (16% less) and the affordability and availability of energy (16% less).

The one issue where Republican worry did not decrease was health care availability and affordability, with the share expressing a great deal of concern rising 3% from 2024.

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