By Tom Gantert, The Center Square

Inflation and price increases are by far the most important issue facing the country.

That’s according to The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll conducted from Oct. 20-26, 2023, in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights.

Other top concerns were Illegal Immigration (33%); Crime/violence (28%); Economy/jobs (24%).

The poll data showed that 48% of registered voters said inflation was the most important issue in the U.S. Illegal immigration had the second most support among registered voters at 35%. Crime and violence was the third most popular pick at 27%.

The poll reported that 95% of registered voters said they have seen prices increase over the last few years with 5% saying they have seen no change.

Among those who reported seeing price increases, 96% said the cost of groceries had increased and 82% said the cost of gasoline had increased.

Another 74% said their utility bills had increased.

“It’s not surprising that inflation is the top concern among voters,” said Antony Davies, an economist at Duquesne University. “Today’s grandparents were teenagers the last time Americans faced double-digit inflation. Politicians have done their best to deflect blame to the greed of corporations, leaving unaddressed the question of whether decades of low inflation were due to corporate altruism. The seeds of today’s inflation were laid during COVID when the Federal Reserve was expanding the money supply to pay for multi-trillions in government spending that Washington couldn’t afford.

One measure of inflation is the Consumer Price Index, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics describes as “a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.” 

The BLS bases CPI on the cost of food, clothing, shelter, fuels, transportation, doctors’ and dentists’ services, drugs and other products and services that people purchase on a daily basis.

From 2013 through 2020 in the mid-Atlantic region, the monthly percent increase in CPI ranged from as low as negative 0.2% in April 2015 to as high as 2.9% in June and July 2018.

But in 2021, monthly increases in CPI started occurring. CPI increased by 4.2% in April 2021 and then rose as high as 7% in December 2021. In 2022, the CPI monthly increases ranged from 6.5% to as high as 9.1%.

In 2023, the monthly increases in CPI have hovered at 3.7% in August and September.

The poll surveyed 2,605 voters and included 1,035 Republicans, 1,074 Democrats, and 496 Independents. The poll has a margin of error of 1.92%.