WA’s top problem? Your answer may depend on where you live

Last week, I reported on a new survey showing half the adult population in Washington felt the state was on the wrong track, compared with only 39% saying we’re going in the right direction.

Some readers wrote to me wondering what was making half the state feel things are on the wrong track.

Another question on the same survey might shed some light.

Respondents were asked to share what they felt was the single most important problem facing Washington today. Researchers categorized responses by 22 types of problems. If a response touched on more than one type of problem, it was counted in more than one category.

The survey data reveals a wide gap along geographic lines in what many Washingtonians perceive as the state’s biggest problems. This difference is most pronounced between residents of King County and those of Eastern Washington, particularly when it comes to the top two problems: Homelessness/poverty and cost of living/inflation.

No single problem came anywhere close to reaching a majority among survey respondents, though homelessness/poverty was the clear front runner. Twenty-eight percent identified it as Washington’s most important problem. But homelessness/poverty was a far bigger concern in King County than the rest of the state.

In King County, 44% said homelessness/poverty was the most important problem in Washington. That may not be too much of a surprise to readers who live in King County, where homelessness has been at crisis levels for years.

In Eastern Washington, homelessness/poverty was identified as the state’s top problem by just 14%, lower than in King County, or any other part of Western Washington. And in fact, Eastern Washington was the only area in the state where homelessness/poverty was not the No. 1 issue.

East of the Cascades, cost of living/inflation was the top-ranked issue, identified as Washington’s most pressing concern by 25% of respondents.

But in King County, the cost of living/inflation was the top issue for a much smaller share of residents. Only 10% identified it as the No. 1 problem, lower than any other of region of the state.

That may be a little surprising. After all, King County is the most expensive place to live in Washington, which is mainly due to the high cost of housing. But King County is also the most affluent part of the state. The median household income in 2022 was about $116,000, according to census data. In some counties in Eastern Washington, the median was less than $70,000.

Statewide, cost of living/inflation ranked second, identified as Washington’s most important problem by 17%.

Beyond geographic location, there were a couple other gaps between demographic groups in identifying Washington’s top problem.

For example, 39% of adults under 30 considered homelessness/poverty as the state’s most important problem, higher than any other age group. Democratic voters were also more likely than Republicans to identify this problem as the most important, 31% to 20%.

After homelessness/poverty and cost of living/inflation, the third most frequently identified issue was crime/public safety, considered the most important problem in Washington by 14% statewide. There weren’t statistically-significant differences across various regions of Washington, but there was a big gender gap: Women were more likely to consider crime/public safety a top problem than men, 19% vs. 9%.

The only other problem to hit double digits statewide was taxes, identified as the state’s top problem by 10% of Washington adults. And here again, there was a gap between King County and Eastern Washington.

In Eastern Washington, 16% felt taxes were the biggest problem, ranking it second behind the cost of living/inflation.

But taxes barely registered in King County, identified as Washington’s most important problem by just 5%.

DHM conducted the online survey of 500 Washington registered voters from March 8-13. The firm surveyed a representative sample of Washington voters and weighted the data to accurately reflect the population based on political affiliation as well as area of the state, age, gender, race, income and education. The margin of error for this survey is plus or minus 4.4%.