While Coloradans’ top concerns about living the state continue to focus on the economic challenges they face, the latest Colorado Health Foundation Pulse Poll also revealed that depending on what demographic group you belong to may play a role in how severely you’re feeling those concerns. The 2025 Pulse Poll, the Colorado Health Foundation’s sixth annual, revealed that while all of the major concerns remain relatively consistent across the state, a closer look into demographic groups, as defined by location, age, race, ethnicity, income, political affiliation and experiences with mental health strain, reveals younger people, unemployed residents or people living on lower incomes, renters, people without health insurance, American Indian/Alaska Native, LGBTQ+ individuals and residents of Pueblo County are experiencing disproportionate financial impacts as well as mental health challenges.

Making Sacrifices Due to Rising Costs

For the first time since the pandemic, Pulse Poll results reflected a modest decline in the number of respondents reporting that they’ve had to make significant sacrifices to pay the bills, identify as worse off financially, or say that they are really struggling financially. At the same time, there was a slight decrease in the number of people who say they are living comfortably with increasing savings or are better off financially than they were a year ago.

While half of the respondents said they have not experienced financial challenges in the past year, nearly one in five Coloradans report experiencing at least three of the six challenges presented to them in the poll.

Among those challenges, food insecurity remains a significant issue for many Coloradans, with rates notably higher among several demographic groups—including Black, Latino, and American Indian and Alaska Native residents.

Where you live matters

While the top issues remained relatively consistent across the state, respondents in Morgan County, CO shared a drastically different list of top issues, led by healthcare costs and followed by drug overdoses, illegal immigration and crime, in general.

In addition, nearly three in four respondents (73%) on the Eastern Plains view the cost of living as an extremely serious or very serious problem, compared to nearly nine of 10 Coloradans (89%).

Interestingly, residents of urban communities expressed greater concern about wildfires, while suburban and rural respondents were more focused on crime. Concerns about crime in general (55%) was more than double the 24% who reported concerns about crime in their own neighborhoods.

Other key topics with significant differences between urban, suburban and rural residents included climate change, illegal immigration and mistreatment of immigrants, racial bias and discrimination, and gun violence.

Mental health strain triggered by political and financial concerns

Staying at the forefront, 56% of Coloradans reported experiencing mental health strain—such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, or stress—in the past year, a figure that has remained steady since 2022. Of those respondents, 32% identified political issues as the primary contributor to their strain, with financial issues a close second at 29%. Both factors were cited at roughly twice the rate of the next highest contributor, family or relationship issues.

Those experiencing mental health strain report greater concerns than the average respondent across a broad range of issues—including mental health, climate change, and the treatment of immigrants.

Taxes and where the money goes

When asked about taxes, Coloradans believe that lower- and middle-income individuals, small businesses, and their own households are paying too much, while high-income earners and large corporations are paying too little.

Overall, Coloradans feel that it’s extremely important for their tax dollars to be directed to critical services like public safety (80%), stimulating jobs and the economy (69%), health care (67%), mental health (65%) and housing (63%).

Democrats, Independents, and Republicans have similar support for directing taxes to public safety, while support from Republicans and Independents drops for services such as healthcare, mental health and housing.

About Pulse Poll 2025

The 2025 Pulse Poll was conducted by telephone and online from April 19 – May 18, 2025 among a random representative sample of 2,333 adults age 18 and older living in Colorado including oversamples of Black/African-American, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Asian American Coloradans, as well as residents of Morgan County. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/-3.07% at the 95% confidence interval. For results based on subgroups, the margin of sampling error is higher.