A record 79% of Americans say inflation will continue to rise, with half of respondents predicting it will increase by "a lot," according to a new Gallup poll released on Wednesday.
Gallup said this was the highest percentage of Americans to predict inflation will increase since it first asked this question in 2001, stating that "in the past, Americans have always been more likely to say inflation will increase rather than decrease, but the current expectation is ... the highest Gallup has measured in its trend.
"The prior high was 76% in September 2005. In recent years, from 2007 through 2020, roughly 6 in 10 Americans have expected inflation to increase."
Other results from the survey include:
- Americans are more likely to predict the stock market will go up (46%) than go down (29%), and more also expect unemployment to decrease (43%) than increase (34%). In addition, 78% predicted that interest rates would rise.
- When asked if rising prices have caused hardship for their family, 49% of Americans said yes, including 9% who say it has caused "severe" hardship affecting their ability to maintain their current standard of living.
- Lower-income Americans are suffering the most from inflation. Two-thirds of adults with an annual household income of less than $40,000 said they have experienced hardship, with 20% describing it as severe.
- Among middle-income Americans, 56% report that rising prices are causing them at least moderate hardship, while 32% in the upper-income bracket say the same.
- Political affiliation appears to influence how much people say rising prices are hurting their families, with a smaller proportion of Democrats (36%) than Republicans (60%) or independents (57%) reporting they have experienced hardship.
- 8% have named inflation as the top problem facing the U.S., significantly higher than the 1% to 2% who did so for most of last year and the highest Gallup has measured since it was 11% in 1985.
- Only 23% describe economic conditions as excellent or good, while 37% say they are poor, and 40% think they are "only fair." Additionally, 29% say the economy is getting better, while 67% believe it is getting worse.
- However, 72% say it is a good time to find a quality job, just below the high of 74% this past October, and significantly higher than the 22% who said so early in the coronavirus pandemic.
The poll was carried out between Jan. 3-16, with a sample of 811 adults. There is a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.