New Polling Finds Americans Struggling to Afford Basic Needs While Trump Administration Agenda Remains Unpopular

Washington, DC — A new National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) survey conducted in partnership with YouGov from Aug. 12–18, finds that rising costs are leading many people to forgo essentials such as food, transportation, and health care.

The survey also finds little public support for several Trump administration proposals affecting women and families. Just 25% of adults support requiring schools to teach abstinence-only sex education in order to receive federal funding, while 18% support eliminating programs that help women enter high paying, non-traditional occupations such as the trades or in STEM.

“People across the country are saying they can’t afford to eat or keep their homes at a safe temperature because of rising basic costs, yet the administration is spending its time pursuing unpopular policies that disproportionately harm women,” said Jasmine Tucker, vice president of research at NWLC. “Women and families want policymakers to focus on real issues, like making child care, health care, and robust food assistance more accessible, not on extreme policies that the public doesn’t support.”

Read the full polling memo here and see below for highlights:

Rising economic challenges have forced people to make difficult choices over the last three months:

• Over 1 in 4 adults (28%) drove their car less or used a different form of transportation because they could not afford the cost.
• One in 5 adults (20%) canceled or skipped a doctor’s appointment because they could not afford it.
• Over 1 in 8 adults (13%) did not have enough to eat because they could not afford to buy sufficient groceries.
• Nearly 1 in 8 adults (12%) kept their home at a temperature that they felt was unsafe or unhealthy because they could not afford the cost.

Data shows people broadly reject recent proposals made by the Trump Administration.

• Only 23% support making it harder for people to access federal assistance that helps pay for food and health care.
• Only 19% support eliminating programs that help women enter high paying, non-traditional occupations such as the trades or in STEM.
• Only 18% support passing laws that require colleges and universities to stop teaching classes focused on women’s studies.
• Only 25% support requiring schools teach abstinence-only sex education in order to receive federal funding.

NWLC also recently released a new analysis that found spending on basic needs has consumed an increasingly larger share of lower-income households’ income over the last two decades, while becoming less burdensome for the richest households. Looking at two decades of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, NWLC found that lower-income households’ spending on basic needs—including housing, transportation, food, health care, and child care—rose 14.5% between 2004 and 2024, while their income grew just 5.5%. As a result, lower-income households went from spending 87.5% of their pre-tax income on basic needs in 2004 to 95% in 2024.

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