Washington DC, Aug 10, 2022 – An NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll shows that at a time when households across the U.S. widely report experiencing serious problems from inflation, people of color are substantially more likely than Whites to report they are currently having serious financial problems in this period. Black, Latino and Native American adults also report facing more serious issues across several areas compared to White Americans.
Key finding from the Personal Experiences of U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minorities in Today’s Difficult Times poll include:
58 percent of Black and Native American families reported not having enough emergency savings to cover at least one month of their expenses, compared to 53 percent of Latino adults and 36 percent of White adults.
39 percent of Native American, 32 percent of Black, 30 percent of Latino and 14 percent of Asian adults reported having serious problems affording food, compared to 21 percent of White adults.
A wider share of Black renters (16%), Native American renters (21%) and Latino renters (10%) say they have been evicted or threatened with eviction in the past year than White renters (9%). Only 4 percent of Asian renters reported eviction or threats of eviction.
While more than six in 10 people of all racial and ethnic groups reported a lack of affordable housing to rent or buy, the condition of the neighborhoods where they lived varied. Black, Native American, and Latino families were significantly more likely to report serious problems with air and water quality, access to good jobs, and access to parks and green space.
Among U.S. households where anyone has been seriously ill in the past year, 35 percent of Native American households, 24 percent of Black households, 18 percent of Latino households, 18 percent of White households, and 10 percent of Asian households say they were unable to get medical care for serious illnesses when they needed it.
Majorities of adults across racial/ethnic groups (74% of Latinos, 65% of Asians, 65% of Whites, 61% of Blacks, and 61% of Native Americans) say lack of affordable housing to buy is a serious problem in their own neighborhoods.
40 percent of Native American adults, 35 percent of Black adults, 35 percent of Latino adults, 28 percent of White adults, and 22 percent of Asian adults say crime is currently a serious problem in their own neighborhoods.
“These poll findings are a reminder that while everyone is impacted by today's inflation and economy, we're not all feeling the same pressures in the same ways,” said Alonzo Plough, Vice President for Research and Evaluation and Chief Science Officer at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “These differences are the result of policies and practices that have created fewer opportunities in some communities and we need solutions that are designed to build a more equitable future.”
