Missouri Foundation for Health released the initial polling results from Speak Up MO, the Foundation’s inaugural public opinion poll aimed at understanding the views and experiences of Missourians on various health and community issues. The bipartisan research team surveyed over 1,700 adults between March 2 – 18, 2024, using telephone calls, focus groups, and an online discussion forum.
Data was gathered as part of the Foundation’s inaugural public opinion poll, Speak Up MO, aimed at understanding the views and experiences of Missourians on various health and community issues. The bipartisan research team surveyed over 1,700 adults between March 2 – 18, 2024, using telephone calls, focus groups, and an online discussion forum.
According to the initial results, Missourians have a complex relationship with their home state. While Missourians express strong connections to their communities, economic pressures and other challenges loom large.
Key findings include:
- Positive outlook: Most residents of Missouri are likely to recommend it as a place to live.
- Community pride: Overall, most respondents view their communities as “safe” and “welcoming,” particularly for children.
- Top concerns: Those surveyed identified the rising cost of living, health care affordability, and drug and alcohol use as top issues facing the state.
Issues such as police violence, illegal immigration, and climate change were generally viewed as “not too serious” by many Missourians, although there were stark differences by race and political affiliation.
- Police violence: While 40 percent of all respondents viewed police violence as “not too serious,” 60 percent of Black respondents considered it as an “extremely serious” or “very serious” problem. There was also some variance among political parties: 48 percent of Democrats, 35 percent of independents, and 15 percent of Republicans cited police violence as an “extremely serious” or “very serious” problem.
- Climate change: Although 39 percent of respondents said climate change was “not too serious,” 65 percent of Democrats labeled it as an “extremely serious” or “very serious” problem, compared to only 8 percent of Republicans.
- Illegal immigration: 38 percent of all respondents rated illegal immigration as “not too serious” but 62 percent of Republicans said it was an “extremely serious” or “very serious” problem, in contrast to only 12 percent of Democrats.
MFH plans to release a series of reports to dive deeper into a range of topics including physical and mental health, economic wellbeing and personal finances, and civic engagement.
Contact: Molly Crisp at 314.345.5579 or mcrisp@mffh.org