Since 2019, The Colorado Health Foundation has polled Coloradans on a range of issues impacting health and wellbeing in its annual PULSE survey. This year, as communities and state officials debate housing solutions, rising inflation and housing affordability topped the list of resident’s most urgent concerns. Several additional concerns rise to the level of very serious for the majority of Coloradans, particularly around behavioral health and violence.
“There is also substantial concern about issues including mental health, drug overdoses, crime and gun violence,” researcher Dave Metz said in a briefing last week. “Each of those is an issue where a solid majority of Coloradans, at least three in five, rated as a very serious problem.”
Here are five takeaways from the survey:
- Inflation and housing costs remain a top concern. More than 50% of respondents cited both as ‘extremely serious problems,’ with similar responses coming from all racial and ethnic groups as well as income levels. Residents in the Eastern Plains, Larimer and Weld Counties were more concerned than people living elsewhere. Concerns about homelessness are growing throughout the region and came in as the third most urgent concern, a concern that is also reflected in the priorities of Denver’s new mayor, Mike Johnston. Still, overall cost-related worries have softened slightly since 2022.
- More residents are worried about gun violence. The percentage of respondents who say this is a very serious problem jumped 13% from last year, which is the largest increase out of any category. The PULSE survey, conducted this past Spring, followed two shootings at Denver’s East High School, along with protests and district-wide debates over school safety. In 2021, over 1,000 people were killed by firearms in Colorado.
- The cost of health care, drug overdoses and crime are important but secondary concerns. Following cost of living and housing worries, over one third of respondents rated these problems as extremely serious. Many Coloradans struggle to get the medical and behavioral health care they need due to cost and long wait times. After years of significant increases, Colorado’s overdose rates dropped slightly in 2022.
- Worries about racial bias and police violence have fluctuated since 2020. The first PULSE survey took place in 2020, around the time of George Floyd’s murder, nation-wide BLM protests and then, the passage of police accountability legislation in Colorado. Around 40% of respondents thought police violence and racial bias were very serious problems in 2020. This year’s numbers are slightly lower in comparison.
- Wildfires and climate change are concerns for many but not top issues. Only 1% of respondents mentioned wildfires as a top concern but when asked specifically about the importance of natural disasters and climate change, over half of the residents polled said climate change was very serious for them. These responses follow a snowy winter.
