--- title: 'Inflation Is the Biggest Problem in America Right Now: Survey' description: In a new survey, Inflation was named as the biggest problem in America — bigger even than violent crime, climate change or racism. authors: - name: Sarah Hansen role: Senior Writer url: https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/ bio: Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. Previously, she covered economic policy and capital markets on the breaking news desk at Forbes. education: Northwestern University, New York University at_money_since: 2021 articles: 347 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-m-hansen/ former_staff: true published: '2022-05-13T16:03:19.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T17:28:55.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - inflation - News word_count: 444 canonical: https://money.com/inflation-biggest-problem-in-america/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![A woman shops for groceries in Rosemead, California on April 21, 2022](https://img.money.com/2022/05/News-2022-Biggest-Problem-Inflation.jpg) Americans think inflation is a big problem. In fact, in a new survey inflation was more often named as a big problem than longstanding issues like violent crime, healthcare affordability, climate change and racism. With the cost of [gas](https://money.com/how-to-save-money-on-gas/), groceries and other essentials rising at a record pace, a whopping 93% of Americans now say inflation is a “very big problem” or a "moderately big problem" in the United States. That’s more than any other category, according to a [new poll](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/05/12/by-a-wide-margin-americans-view-inflation-as-the-top-problem-facing-the-country-today/) of more than 5,000 adults conducted between April 25 and May 1 by the Pew Research Center. Violent crime was second on the list of Americans’ most pressing concerns, with 88% of people describing that issue as a "very big" or "moderately big" problem. Healthcare affordability took the third spot (87%). Both climate change and racism were described as big problems by 69% of people in the survey. Data released by the federal government showed that consumer prices in April were 8.3% higher than they were a year earlier. That’s slightly less than the [8.5% price growth](https://money.com/inflation-highest-since-1981-gas-prices/) (a 40-year high) recorded in March, but some categories are still seeing especially steep price increases. [Grocery prices](https://money.com/inflation-groceries-food-prices-rising/) rose 11% on an annual basis in April, for instance, and [gasoline prices](https://money.com/gas-prices-new-record-high/) are nearly 50% more expensive than they were a year ago. Airfares jumped 18.6% in the last month alone, and are up 33% compared to April 2021. Overall, the average household is spending an extra $312 per month to purchase the same goods it did last year — a “noticeable burden,” according to a recent Moody’s Analytics [analysis](https://www.moodysanalytics.com/-/media/article/2021/weekly-market-outlook-did-inflation-peak-doesnt-matter-to-the-fed.pdf). ## How to lower inflation? The Federal Reserve has already [raised interest rates](https://money.com/interest-rate-hike-investing-strategy/) twice this year as part of its strategy to tamp down on rapid price growth. “We understand that inflation is very painful,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in an [interview](https://www.marketplace.org/2022/05/12/fed-chair-jerome-powell-controlling-inflation-will-include-some-pain/) this week. “We have the tools and we have the … strong desire to get inflation under control.” Powell said that the process of bringing inflation down will be painful, because raising interest rates makes it more expensive to borrow money and slows down spending. But it’s necessary to prevent even more suffering down the line. “Ultimately the most painful thing would be if we were to fail to deal with it and inflation were to get entrenched in the economy at high levels,” Powell said. “We’d have to go through a much deeper downturn.” [Inflation Is Hitting Groceries Hard, With Food Prices up Nearly 11% Since Last Year](https://money.com/inflation-groceries-food-prices-rising/) [Would Student Loan Forgiveness Make Inflation Even Worse?](https://money.com/how-student-loan-forgiveness-affects-inflation/) [Stocks Usually Thrive After Inflation Peaks. So Is Now a Good Time to Buy?](https://money.com/inflation-peak-stock-market/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/inflation-biggest-problem-in-america/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Inflation", "item": "https://money.com/inflation/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Inflation Is the Biggest Problem in America Right Now: Survey" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/inflation-biggest-problem-in-america/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/inflation-biggest-problem-in-america/", "name": "Inflation Is the Biggest Problem in America Right Now: Survey", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-05-13T16:03:19.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/inflation-biggest-problem-in-america/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/inflation-biggest-problem-in-america/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T17:28:55.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Inflation Is the Biggest Problem in America Right Now: Survey", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/05/News-2022-Biggest-Problem-Inflation.jpg", "width": 2159, "height": 1440, "caption": "News-2022-Biggest-Problem-Inflation" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Hansen", "url": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/#author", "description": "Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. Previously, she covered economic policy and capital markets on the breaking news desk at Forbes.", "image": "https://img.money.com/2021/10/a_sarah-hansen.jpg?quality=85&w=400&h=440&crop=1", "email": "sarah.hansen@money.com", "alumniOf": "Northwestern University, New York University", "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-m-hansen/" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2022-05-13T16:03:19.000Z", "description": "In a new survey, Inflation was named as the biggest problem in America — bigger even than violent crime, climate change or racism.", "abstract": "In a new survey, Inflation was named as the biggest problem in America — bigger even than violent crime, climate change or racism.", "@id": "https://money.com/inflation-biggest-problem-in-america/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-01-10T17:28:55.000Z", "wordCount": 444, "keywords": [ "inflation", "News" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Inflation", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Opinion poll", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_poll" ] } ] } ] } ```