Americans' concern about gasoline and energy prices has risen sharply since the start of the year, and fewer than a quarter now rate national economic conditions positively, a new survey found.
In a Pew Research Center report published Thursday, 74% of U.S. adults said they were very concerned about gas and energy prices. That was up from 60% in July and 43% in January. The survey records public concern; it does not measure what an individual household pays or establish the cause of price changes.
Pew surveyed 5,062 adults nationwide from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4. The center did not publish a New York or Finger Lakes result, so its percentages cannot be applied directly to residents of the region.
Economic assessments turn more negative
Only 21% rated national economic conditions excellent or good, down from 28% at the start of 2026. Another 37% rated them only fair, and 42% called them poor. In July, 24% had given an excellent or good rating.
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents remained more positive than Democrats and Democratic leaners, but ratings worsened in both groups. Among Republicans, 36% called the economy excellent or good, down from 41% in July; 23% called it poor, up from 19%. Among Democrats, 9% gave a positive rating, little changed from July, while the share calling conditions poor rose to 56% from 48%.
Looking ahead a year, 26% of all adults expected the economy to improve, 34% expected it to stay about the same and 39% expected it to worsen. Republicans were more optimistic than Democrats, 41% to 14%.
The rising concern about energy was broad, though not even across party lines. Eighty-one percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners said they were very concerned about gas and energy prices, compared with 65% of Republicans and Republican leaners. Pew also found 73% of adults very concerned about food and consumer goods costs.
Concern about job availability has grown as well. Forty-eight percent said they were very concerned that people who want work could not find jobs, up from 44% in July and 29% in October 2022. Half were very concerned about the role of artificial intelligence in the economy; 21% expressed that level of concern about the stock market.
Views of policies and tariffs
Asked to assess the effect of President Donald Trump's economic policies, 65% said the policies had made conditions worse, 19% said better and 15% said they had not had much effect. Those are respondents' judgments, not an independent measure of policy effects.
Republican views have shifted: 39% now said Trump's policies had improved the economy, down from 57% in January, while 35% said the policies had made things worse, up from 18%. Among Democrats, 91% said the policies had worsened conditions.
On tariffs, 56% of all adults expected the administration's policies to have a mostly negative effect on the country in coming years, 20% expected a mostly positive effect and 22% expected a mix. Four in 10 Republicans expected a mostly positive effect, down from 49% in January. A quarter of Republicans expected a negative effect, up from 17%. The question asked about expectations, not observed future outcomes.
The economic concerns also intersect with the congressional campaign: a separate chapter of Pew's midterm report found that 84% of registered voters called the economy very important to their vote. That voter measure has a different denominator from the adult economic ratings above.
According to Pew's survey methodology, participants came from its randomly recruited American Trends Panel and answered online or by live telephone in English or Spanish. The full adult sample's margin of sampling error was plus or minus 1.6 percentage points. Estimates for party groups have larger uncertainty, and question wording or nonresponse can introduce error beyond sampling variation.
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