Cost of Living is Coloradans’ biggest concern

The Colorado Health Foundation’s annual Pulse Poll this year finds Coloradans believe they face a number of significant challenges — beyond rising cost-of-living concerns — that include drug overdoses, immigration and natural disasters.

Still, the single most concern for nearly nine out of 10 respondents was the growing burden of household expenses. Affordability worries, shared by 89% of respondents, were at an all-time high in 2024, researchers said. While housing affordability and the cost of living dominated a laundry list of concerns shared by Coloradans last year, just 31% of respondents said then this was their chief worry.

Now in its fifth year, the poll has been conducted annually by the Colorado Health Foundation, a philanthropic organization advocating for policies that “drive health equity and racial justice,” according to its website.

The poll asked Coloradans more than three dozen questions on a variety of topics that included: health care, education, crime, traffic congestion, climate change and overdevelopment, among others.

Respondents identified six challenges, in addition to cost-of-living, they believe extremely or very serious issues in Colorado.

Among these issues:

• Drug overdoses (65%)
• Crime (59%)
• Mental health (59%)
• Jobs and the economy (57%)
• Immigration (53%)
• Wildfires and other natural disasters (53%)

Concerns over immigration have surged over the past year, coinciding with the waves of new immigrants and the city’s scrambled response, which had threatened to plunge the city into a fiscal crisis.

Over the past 21 months, Denver has welcomed more than 42,000 immigrants, many of whom are from South and Central America and who crossed the southern border illegally. As of July 1, the city had spent on the humanitarian response more than $72 million, the bulk of which has been picked up by Denver taxpayers.

This time last year, 34% of poll respondents said illegal immigration was a problem in Colorado compared to 53% this year — a 19% increase. This also represents a jump in rankings from dead last in 2023 to eighth in 2024.

While crime, in general, was top of mind for nearly six in 10 Coloradans, when researchers drilled down on the issue they discovered that only one-in-four were concerned about crime in their neighborhood. Latinos and Native Americans were more concerned about crime in their neighborhood compared to other groups, whereas Republicans were most worried about crime.

Nearly one-in-three Coloradans were concerned about drug overdoses. In 2022, the latest data available, Colorado had 1,799 drug overdose deaths. Two years earlier, Colorado had 1,477 deaths, a 22% increase, according to state data.

A year outside the COVID-19 public health emergency, 59% of respondents reported a mental health strain — compared to 69% last year — with about a quarter saying they postponed care last year. “Mental health may be a less top-of-mind concern for Coloradans this year, given all the other issues demanding their attention,” Dave Metz, Democratic pollster for Pulse and president of FM3 Research, said in a statement. “However, the data show it remains a widespread challenge.”

In a visit to Children’s Hospital Colorado last year, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned the public that about 50% of youth had reported feeling lonely and isolated, a problem likely compounded by the 24-7 nature of today’s technology and social media.

Metz noted that this year’s survey found “some consensus around a potential solution: a clear plurality wants action taken to make it easier to cover mental healthcare through health insurance.” Responses were collected from 2,404 Coloradans between May 20 and June 24. Poll data is being released in three phases with first on the impact of economic concerns on wellbeing released last month.

Each release takes a look at the challenges Coloradans face and the solutions they want policymakers to prioritize.

Click here to read the report.