Gallup News publishes expert measurement of human thinking every day. It is the premium human polling organisation in America. No other poll can match the experience and wisdom of the Gallup. It was founded by my mentor, Dr George Gallup. In 1935, in Princeton, New Jersey, George established his famous method. Over 90 years ago. Wisdom and experience is strategically important in scientific polling systems.
I believe George may have invented the very first human large language model.
Today, here, we are very interested in what Americans think. And what can be done about it.
••• NOTE: Gallup’s latest publicly available “Most Important Problem” survey provides a strong evidence base because respondents answered an open-ended question rather than selecting from a prepared list.
- Government and poor political leadership — 28%
- Immigration — 12%
- The economy generally — 11%
- Cost of living and inflation — 11%
- Poverty, hunger and homelessness — 6%
- National division and the need to unify the country — 6%
- Race relations and racism — 5%
- Ethical, moral, religious and family decline — 5%
- Healthcare — 4%
- Elections, election reform and democracy — 4%
A few important qualifications:
- These percentages represent spontaneous mentions, making them a useful measure of what is most immediately salient to Americans.
- Respondents could mention more than one problem, so the figures total more than 100%.
- With a ±4 percentage-point margin of error, small differences—particularly among the lower-ranked topics—should not be treated as definitive.
- Political perspectives differ markedly: government was cited by 38% of Democrats, 25% of Republicans and 22% of independents; immigration was cited by 24% of Republicans, 9% of independents and 5% of Democrats.
The broad conclusion is that Americans’ attention is dominated by three clusters: confidence in government, immigration, and household/economic pressures. Social cohesion—poverty, division, race relations and perceived moral decline—forms a substantial second tier.
Sources: Gallup’s July analysis and the complete Gallup survey results and methodology.