Are you worse off financially today? More Americans say yes. Here’s why

As the Iran war spills over into everyday life, more Americans say they are worse off today than at most any point in the past 25 years.

More than half – 55% – say their financial situation is deteriorating, according to a new Gallup poll. 

While that figure is similar to the slumping sentiment Gallup registered last year, the ranks of the disaffected have grown. Only 47% of Americans were bummed about the economy in 2024. 

This poll also marks the fifth straight year Americans complained things are getting worse, not better. The only time the national mood plunged this low was during the Great Recession.

Financial worries are coming to the fore amid the Iran war and ahead of the November midterm elections, putting pressure on President Donald Trump and Republicans. 

Since the start of the year, Trump has asked Congress to pass legislation that would cap credit card interest rates at 10% and directed the Department of Justice to investigate meatpackers in a bid to bring down beef prices.

Trump often says he inherited from former President Joe Biden an economy in tatters, that under his guiding hand it's "roaring like never before." But the American public has been skeptical.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Trump’s approval rating has slipped to the lowest level of his second term: Just 34% of Americans see the president as a good steward of the economy and the nation. 

Inflation is lower than its peak in 2022 – so what’s keeping Americans up at night? They are struggling with a superfecta of financial headaches: years of stubbornly higher prices, a surge in gas prices and the rising costs of housing and health care.

Four in 10 Americans are worried about how they will pay their monthly bills. Gallup also found an 11-point increase in people who say they are concerned about making minimum credit card payments. 

Kerigan Rosado, 29, commutes an hour each way to her job as an administrative office assistant at Central Michigan University. Her husband has a half-hour drive to his job helping people with disabilities. 

Rosado says the couple in Saginaw, Michigan, have sticker shock from price leaps at the pump. In just the past few days, a gallon of gas jumped to $4.29 from $3.99. Now, with refinery disruptions in the Midwest, she could be looking at $4.70 soon. 

“I drive a Chevy Equinox so I have maybe a 13-gallon tank, so when it’s costing $50 to fill up my car, it hurts, it definitely hurts,” she said. “It means that we have stopped spending in a lot of other areas. We don’t go out anymore. We don’t have the money to buy much of anything really.”

As her anxiety rises, sticking to the essentials has become a matter of financial survival, Rosado said. 

“The past year or so it has really been hitting, but I have been watching things skyrocket since COVID, since 2020. Watching prices at the grocery store rising and rising, it feels like there isn’t a whole lot I can do,” she said. “The things that I have to buy, like food for my fridge or gas to get to work or the electricity for my house, is what keeps going up. It’s not the brand-new flat-screen or the gaming console. It’s those essential things.”

‘Battle with affordability’

Nearly a third of Americans cited the high cost of living as their most pressing financial problem.

Though that figure is below its peak of 41% in 2024 and similar to a year ago, it’s still among the highest Gallup has recorded in decades.

College expenses, transportation costs and child care are all adding up to make it harder for Americans to make ends meet.

“My whole life has been the battle with affordability,” Ray Gomez Jr., 67, of Covina, California, told USA TODAY. “This feels like everything all at once. I feel no hope.”

Though he has struggled with higher prices for years, it feels as if everything from food to rent is going up. “It’s more and more often,” he said. 

Prices are indeed up: The Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, was 3.3% higher in March than a year ago.  

Food prices in particular have been on the rise. Though 11 of the 25 common grocery staples analyzed in a recent CouponFollow study fell in price over the past two years, the food items that are climbing have offset those savings. The study looked at the monthly consumer price index average food price data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics for the past two years.

“Inflation rose steadily in 2021, from 1.4% in January to 7% by December, and peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. It has since retreated, registering under 3% for most months since early 2025,” Gallup said. “Yet it has not consistently returned to the sub-3% range typical of the decade before 2021 – something consumers may be anticipating.”

Second biggest concern? Housing

Housing is an essential need, but it’s slipping out of reach for many Americans. In this poll, it ranked as the second-largest concern.  

It's no wonder: Among the millions of Americans who rent, 50% are considered "cost-burdened," meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing and utilities. That includes the 27% who spend more than half their income on those expenses.

But in an age of high home prices and elevated mortgage rates, it’s harder to become a homeowner. 

The median-priced home was five times greater than the median household income in 2024, much more than the three-times-greater measurement that has long been a rough rule of thumb for what’s affordable. Going back to 1990, the only other period in which the ratio was that high was 2005, at the height of the subprime bubble. 

Home sales are deeply depressed, because many Americans who locked in ultra-low mortgage rates during the pandemic have little incentive to give them up. That’s keeping many would-be buyers on the sidelines.  

Even those lucky enough to become homeowners are facing cost challenges. Property taxes rose 15% from 2019 to 2024, and property insurance is up a daunting 70% from 2019 to 2025 – for those who are still able to get it.  

In a recent interview, one housing counselor told USA TODAY she had referred three homeowners to food pantries in one week this month alone.  

Gas prices are up and more pain is to come

Tied with housing, surging energy costs are keeping Americans up at night.

Higher energy prices were mentioned by 13% of Americans, up 10 percentage points from last year and the highest since 2008, Gallup said. Energy costs are now, along with housing costs Americans’ second-biggest concern.

From truckers to commuters, gasoline prices are squeezing budgets across the country. And the pain at the pump will not let up anytime soon, analysts warned this week.

With peace talks between the United States and Iran appearing deadlocked, the average cost for a gallon of regular gasoline rose to $4.18 – its highest in four years, according to AAA.

Gas was under $3 a gallon before the war started in February. The last time Americans paid this much to fill their tanks was summer 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Gasbuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan had a sobering forecast for Americans. The national average could soon reach $4.30 a gallon, he told USA TODAY.

What’s more, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said he’s worried about stagflation – when high inflation, weak economic growth and rising unemployment happen at the same time.

Earlier in April, he warned higher oil and commodity prices from the war in Iran could push interest rates higher than the market expects while keeping inflation elevated.

From routine procedures to serious illness, health care worries mount

Six in 10 Americans worry they will not be able to cover medical costs if they suffer a serious accident or illness, according to the Gallup poll. Nearly half are concerned about routine costs.

The culprit? The cost of health care is rising faster than wages and inflation.

The average cost for a family health insurance plan offered through the workplace in 2025 was nearly $27,000, an increase of 6% from the year before, according to the health policy nonprofit KFF.

At 62, David Soyka, who has worked for an import/export business for nearly 40 years, says he would retire but hasn’t just so he can keep his health care coverage.

“I’ll be 63 in August and I am terrified of losing my health care coverage,” Soyka said.

He has a number of serious health problems, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. When he broke his ribs two years ago, the bill from the hospital was $90,000.

“If I didn’t have health insurance, it wouldn’t have wiped me out completely, but that’s a lot of money,” he said.

If his company went under or he lost his job, Soyka fears he would have to leave the United States for a country where he could get access to low-cost or free coverage.

“Right now I’m fine, but I am concerned about many, many millions of Americans who aren’t fine,” he said. “I worry about a lot of people, not just friends and family, but people I don’t even know. How do they manage this? They’re one accident or one illness away from being bankrupt.”

Though most working-age Americans get health insurance through their jobs, millions who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace are paying sharply higher costs because Congress failed to extend enhanced tax credits.

Without the enhanced tax credits that expired at the end of 2025, average costs for 22 million Americans who get subsidized ACA insurance more than doubled in January, according to KFF.

The higher costs likely prompted many consumers to drop ACA coverage or seek cheaper, bare-bone insurance that might not cover as much. Preliminary figures released in February showed ACA enrollment declined by 1.2 million, but that number will likely grow when additional figures are released later this year.

Health insurance companies raise prices when spending on medical care increases. Employers cited chronic disease, prescription drug costs, greater use of medical care and hospital costs as reasons why health insurance costs more this year, KFF said.

Lower-income Americans who get Medicaid also could see cuts under Trump’s tax cut and spending law passed by Congress in 2025.

Over the next decade, 7.5 million people will lose Medicaid coverage because of changes under the law, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report in August. Nondisabled adults on Medicaid will be required to get a job, volunteer or enroll in school to maintain their Medicaid coverage. And states must double checks of Medicaid eligibility to twice a year.