(TJV NEWS) More than half of Americans now say the cost of living ranks among the most pressing problems facing the nation — eclipsing every other major concern in a sweeping new survey.

As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reported, the findings come from a Statista Consumer Insights study of 60,000 Americans conducted between October 2024 and September 2025. The results show that inflation and everyday expenses weigh heavier on the minds of U.S. citizens than any of the other 17 issues surveyed — a sign, Zero Hedge pointed out, of deepening economic unease under persistently high prices.

Roughly 40 percent of respondents also flagged crime, the economy, healthcare, social security, poverty, and housing as major issues, while about one-third cited education, immigration, unemployment, and climate change as key national worries.

Across the 21 countries surveyed, anxiety about inflation was near-universal — with many nations ranking it as the single biggest concern. Zero Hedge pointed out that this global pattern underscores how consumers everywhere are being squeezed by rising or stubbornly high costs of basic goods.

Americans, however, expressed notably greater fear of crime than their European or Asian counterparts: 42 percent of U.S. respondents said it was a major issue, compared to just 25–33 percent elsewhere. Meanwhile, only 30 percent of Americans said they were highly worried about climate change, trailing well behind other developed nations where concern levels reached 35–40 percent.

As for immigration, just 31 percent of Americans saw it as a major problem — far lower than countries like Italy, Sweden, Germany, Turkey, and Chile, where concern ranged from 40 to 62 percent.

(Source: Statista, as reported by Katharina Buchholz; analysis noted by Zero Hedge)