Colorado poll sees concern about cost of living

Eighty-two percent of respondents to the annual Pulse poll said that the cost of housing is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in Colorado. The highest levels of concern came from respondents in the Denver metro region.

BY PARKER YAMASAKI THE COLORADO SUN

Cost of living and housing affordability are the top concerns of Coloradans this year, according to a poll released by the Colorado Health Foundation.

In an open-ended question asking participants what they thought the most important issue facing Colorado is right now, 16% answered cost of living and 15% answered housing a ordability. Other issues in the top ve were government and politics, public safety and crime, and homelessness.

About 10% of respondents said that homelessness was their top concern for Colorado, with 79% calling the problem “extremely serious” or “very serious.” e results from the 4th annual survey arrived as Denver’s new mayor, Mike Johnston, declared a state of emergency

Polling is conducted over one month through phone, email and text invitations, in English and Spanish. is year’s data includes 2,639 respondents across all ages, races and income brackets, with oversamples of Black/African American, Native American/Indigenous, Asian American and Pueblo County residents.

One of the cornerstones of CHF is to serve folks with historically less power or privilege, according to Austin Montoya, senior o cer for policy advocacy communications, which is why the foundation takes larger samples of speci c populations. Montoya said that by sampling larger numbers of smaller populations, they are able to more accurately re ect the experiences of those populations. e data is later weighted to re ect Colorado’s population.

Since the poll’s inception in 2020, the biggest drop in respondents’ top concern was, unsurprisingly, COVID-19, which was top of mind