In general, we’re an anxious bunch here in Seattle.
We know this because a national survey regularly asks respondents questions about their mental health, including their levels of anxiety.
Back in March, I wrote how the ongoing Household Pulse Survey, a product of the U.S. Census Bureau, showed Seattle residents frequently had the highest level of anxiety among large metro areas. That still holds true. The latest version of that survey, conducted from June 28 to July 10, shows 53% of Seattle-area adults experienced anxiety for at least three days in the past two weeks — that’s the highest among the 15 largest metro areas.
But, according to the same survey, there is at least one area where the stress level in Seattle isn’t nearly as high as it is in other metro areas: inflation.
The survey found that about 81% of Seattle-area adult residents — that’s a projected 2.5 million people — have noticed price increases in goods and services over the past two months. The percentage is about the same nationally as it is in Seattle.
And of those 2.5 million folks, the overwhelming majority — 92% — said they’re feeling some degree of stress over it. But the key question is just how stressed are Seattle’s adults?
Among those 2.5 million who’ve noticed price increases in the Seattle area, about 37% — a projected 920,000 people — said they found the situation “very stressful.” About 30% reported “moderate” stress, and 25% felt “a little bit” of stress. Only about 8% felt no stress.
While the 37% who feel very stressed over prices is by no means a small number, it’s lower than nearly all the other major metro areas. Boston was the only metro with a smaller share of the population who found the increase in prices very stressful, at 35%.
In six of the 15 largest metro areas, the majority of respondents said the situation was very stressful. The highest percentage was in Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., also known as the Inland Empire, where 56.5% reported feeling very stressed.
Along with Seattle and Boston, only two other large metro areas were below 40% for the share of the adult population experiencing a very high level of stress over inflation: Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
You’ve probably already connected the dots. These four are also the highest-income metro areas among the 15 largest. Needless to say, more affluent people are less likely to be stressed out over price increases than lower-income individuals.
We see this in the survey data for Seattle. Among those with household incomes below $100,000, 53% said price increases over the past two months were very stressful. But among those earning $100,000 or more, only 22.5% did.
The data also shows a higher share of Seattle-area women than men were very stressed over price hikes, 41% vs. 32%.
Inflation has eased considerably since June of last year, when the national rate hit a 40-year high of 9.1%. But even if prices aren’t going up nearly as fast now, they’re still going up.
The Household Pulse Survey is an experimental product of the U.S. Census Bureau, in conjunction with other federal agencies. Unlike other census products, which have a long lag time, the Household Pulse Survey provides near-real-time data. The program was initiated in 2020 in response to the pandemic. It was intended to help inform officials and policymakers about the impacts of the pandemic on communities across the country, and to provide data to aid in a post-pandemic recovery.
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.