--- title: 'Inflation Is No Longer the No. 1 Problem Facing the Country: Poll' description: Inflation was the top problem facing the country for months. Now that prices are coming down, people say government is the biggest problem. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2023-01-30T18:58:05.000Z' modified: '2024-02-18T13:17:14.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - inflation - News word_count: 487 canonical: https://money.com/inflation-government-biggest-problem-united-states/ 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/). ![Us capital Building Red and Blue](https://img.money.com/2023/01/Inflation_no_longer_biggestproblem.jpg) There’s at least one thing both Democrats and Republicans can agree on: A dysfunctional government is our country’s biggest problem. A new Gallup [survey](https://news.gallup.com/poll/468983/cite-gov-top-problem-inflation-ranks-second.aspx) shows that concerns over the government have dethroned inflation as the No. 1 issue facing the nation. ## What the research says For more than two decades, Gallup has been conducting a monthly survey that asks Americans “What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?” - After several months of [inflation reigning as the No. 1 problem](https://money.com/inflation-biggest-problem-in-america/), Americans are now saying that the government is the biggest issue. - 21% of Americans now cite the government as the country's largest problem, marking a 6 percentage-point jump from the previous reading released in December. - Inflation is still very top of mind, though, as the second most cited concern. In January, 15% of Americans said inflation was the biggest problem, a 1 percent point decrease from the previous month. The share of Americans citing the "economy in general" as their No. 1 concern dropped 6 percentage points in January, from 16% to 10%. - "While the U.S. unemployment rate remains relatively low, recent layoffs in the technology sector could affect opinions about the job market, and possibly the broader economy, in the coming months," the Gallup report stated. ## Biggest problems according to Democrats and Republicans The No. 1 and No. 2 top issues are the government and inflation, respectively, for both Democrat-leaning and Republican-leaning respondents, though Republicans took larger issue with the government and inflation. - 24% of Republicans said the government is the biggest problem facing the country, compared to 18% of Democrats. - 18% of Republicans said the same about inflation, whereas only 11% of Democrats reported inflation as their top concern. While the trends suggest some common ground between the left- and right-leaning respondents, the fault lines emerge when drilling down on specific issues. - For example, immigration is a significant concern for Republican respondents but not for Democrats. - Race relations is a much larger concern for Democrats than it is for Republicans. ## What's driving the trends Gallup’s survey was conducted between Jan. 2-22, and the timing likely has an impact on the results. The most recent inflation report, released on Jan. 12, showed the inflation rate slowing down significantly. That likely provided some peace of mind for respondents. Likewise, the dramatic 15-round voting process to determine the new speaker of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives occurred in the first week of January. President Joe Biden was also dealing with a scandal related to classified documents that were found in his home while the poll was active. These events drew ire about the government from both Democrats and Republicans alike. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/inflation-government-biggest-problem-united-states/#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 No Longer the No. 1 Problem Facing the Country: Poll" } ] }, { "@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-government-biggest-problem-united-states/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/inflation-government-biggest-problem-united-states/", "name": "Inflation Is No Longer the No. 1 Problem Facing the Country: Poll", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-01-30T18:58:05.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/inflation-government-biggest-problem-united-states/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/inflation-government-biggest-problem-united-states/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-02-18T13:17:14.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Inflation Is No Longer the No. 1 Problem Facing the Country: Poll", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/01/Inflation_no_longer_biggestproblem.jpg", "width": 2700, "height": 1518, "caption": "News-Inflation-no-longer-biggest-problem" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers.", "image": "https://img.money.com/2022/01/a_adam-hardy.jpg?quality=85&w=400&h=440&crop=1", "email": "adam.hardy@money.com", "jobTitle": "Lead Data Reporter", "alumniOf": "University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism", "subjectOf": [ { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/", "name": "The Penny Hoarder" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.forbes.com/advisor/", "name": "Forbes Advisor" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://creativeloafing.com/", "name": "Creative Loafing" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/opinion/biden-trump-harris-2024.html", "name": "The New York Times" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/26/flexible-spending-account-is-flawed-benefit/", "name": "The Washington Post" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-09-20/-100-000-h-1b-visa-fee-is-a-gamble-that-could-protect-us-jobs", "name": "Bloomberg" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2024/02/08/whoop-and-the-irs-how-tax-avoidance-helps-health/", "name": "Harvard Law School" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/29/2025-23853/weighted-selection-process-for-registrants-and-petitioners-seeking-to-file-cap-subject-h-1b#footnote-33-p60883", "name": "The Federal Register" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.nclc.org/resources/what-states-can-do-to-stop-credit-reporting-abuses/", "name": "National Consumer Law Center" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.cbsnews.com/news/open-enrollment-irs-changes-fsa-hsa-flexible-spending-account-health-savings-account-2023/", "name": "CBS News" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/20-top-us-hospitals-for-2025-per-money/", "name": "Becker's Hospital Review" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.businessinsider.com/using-chatgpt-ai-write-cover-letters-job-applications-2023-2", "name": "Business Insider" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/a-major-strike-of-beef-workers-pauses-in-colorado-but-workers-say-the-fight-isnt-over/", "name": "Mother Jones" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://theweek.com/business/economy/job-market-frozen-thawing", "name": "The Week" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://fortune.com/2023/12/20/workers-lose-money-on-unused-fsa-accounts-deadlines-what-companies-should-do/", "name": "Fortune" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/liberation-day-tariffs-economy-stock-market-trump-20250401.html", "name": "The Philadelphia Inquirer" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/37955/Student_Loan_Changes_2026_New_Repayment_Options_Taxable_Forgiveness_and_More_on_the_Way", "name": "National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA)" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://eab.com/resources/blog/adult-education-blog/graduate-funding-shift-pricing-aid-strategies-aligned/", "name": "Education Advisory Board (EAB)" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://ticas.org/california/state-private-loans-protections-blog/", "name": "The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS)" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://thismorningwithgordondeal.com/b/This-Morning-with-Gordon-Deal-August-04,-2026/421564107823081285.html", "name": "This Morning with Gordon Deal" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.empower.com/the-currency/life/pumpkin-spice-season-spending", "name": "Empower" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/1va10oa/comment/p0i9bju/", "name": "Reddit" } ], "sameAs": [ "https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism", "https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/" ], "worksFor": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2023-01-30T18:58:05.000Z", "description": "Inflation was the top problem facing the country for months. Now that prices are coming down, people say government is the biggest problem.", "abstract": "Inflation was the top problem facing the country for months. Now that prices are coming down, people say government is the biggest problem.", "@id": "https://money.com/inflation-government-biggest-problem-united-states/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-02-18T13:17:14.000Z", "editor": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "wordCount": 487, "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" ] } ] } ] } ```