Government And Politicians Worried Americans Most In 2014, Not The Economy, Survey Finds

Dissatisfaction with "Government/Congress/Politicians" was the most important problem for Americans in 2014, according to a new Gallup study released Friday.

On average, 18 percent of respondents said poor government leadership was the most important problem facing the U.S. in 2014, followed by the economy in general at 17 percent, unemployment/jobs at 15 percent and health care at 10 percent, Gallup said.

Eight percent of Americans said immigration was the most important issue, and 6 percent said the federal deficit/debt.

It's the first time in Gallup records that dissatisfaction with the government topped the list, and 2014 was the first year since 2007 that the economy was not the top-ranked issue.

Also worth mentioning is that no single issue averaged 20 percent or more in 2014, a first since 2001, Gallup said.

Between 2004 and 2007, at least 22 percent of Americans listed Iraq as the most important problem, and from 2008 to 2013, the economy topped the list for at least 22 percent of respondents.

"With unemployment and gas prices falling, the U.S. not being involved in any major wars and scaling back operations in Afghanistan, and no acts of domestic terrorism occurring, the factors that have caused Americans to converge on a single pressing concern in the past simply weren't present in 2014. Rather, as mentions of the economy and unemployment have dwindled since 2012, mentions of healthcare and government leadership have grown to join them, forming a set of comparably sized, moderate-level concerns that now define the public's view of what ails the nation," Gallup's Lydia Saad wrote.

"The dispersion of public concern seen in 2014 may also have implications for the 2016 presidential election," she wrote. "Should it persist, the lack of a single defining public issue could make candidates' task of honing a message for the election more complex."

To construct the survey, Gallup examined data from surveys throughout the year and averaged the results. The organization listed a margin of error of plus or minus one percentage point.