Each month,
Gallup asks 1,000
random members
of the US public
to identify:
“the most important
problem facing
this country today.”
Two to three answers
typically dominate
the results, followed
by many other concerns
mentioned by small
percentages of people.
Terrorism, or Iraq,
were major concerns
prior to 2009, and
then disappeared.
Immigration was
a top concern
in 2006 and 2007,
vanished for years,
and only resurfaced
in 2015.
Health care
appears
seven times.
Percentage
of people
who identified
health care
as America’s
most important
problem:
10% (2007)
8% (2008)
15% (2009)
13% (2010)
10% (2014)
10% (2017)
6% (2019)
Americans
cared about
the following
issues
in one year,
or in a few years,
but they were
not a top priority
in most years:
education: 9% (in 2001)
ethics & morals: 9% (2001)
gas prices: 10% (2008)
federal deficit: 10-12% (2011-13)
race relations: 6-8% (2016-19)
unifying country: 6% (2018)
So what’s missing?
Climate change !
Not even once
in two decades,
has climate change
been among the
top four problems.
Climate change
has never been
important to
ordinary people,
living their lives,
raising their kids,
and paying their bills.
Details of
Gallup’s monthly
polling results
were available
online for
seven months,
from August 2018
to February 2019.
Those details
include
a long list
of answers
mentioned by
small numbers
of respondents,
including abortion,
crime, drugs, gay
and lesbian rights,
gun control, and
school shootings.
For
‘Environment / Pollution’,
which should includes
climate change:
During those
seven months,
environmental issues
were called America’s
top concern by an average
of 2.7%, ranging between
1% and 5% of those polled.
The percentage
of people who said
environmental issues
were the most
important problem
facing America,
in those seven months:
2%, 1%, 3%, 2%, 5%, 3%,
and 3% – which is
an average of 2.7%.