Gallup · 1946–2023 · official US PAP data

The most important problem

For almost eighty years, Gallup has asked Americans one question: what is the most important problem facing the country? Coded to policy topics, the answers are the longest attention series in American politics.

Eight problems, eight eras

Share of coded Gallup responses naming each topic, 1946–2023 (1946, 1953 and 1955 have no survey and are drawn as zero). Panels are scaled to their own peak — the annotation gives each one's high-water mark.

Macroeconomicspeak 79% · 1982

19462023

Defensepeak 47% · 1959

19462023

International Affairspeak 53% · 1951

19462023

Civil Rightspeak 49% · 1963

19462023

Law and Crimepeak 32% · 1999

19462023

Government Operationspeak 36% · 2023

19462023

Healthpeak 35% · 1989

19462023

Social Welfarepeak 12% · 1995

19462023

78years of answers

1,638topic-year observations

21policy topics coded

Source: Gallup's Most Important Problem, the US Policy Agendas Project (v21.3) ↗. Annual topic shares of survey responses, coded with the Policy Agendas topic system; the eight panels are the topics with the highest average share across the whole period.