Top 5 global worries: January 2025

It's a new year, but old worries are lingering.

Cost-of-living concern continues to loom large as 2025 kicks off.

In January 2020 a mere 11%, on average globally, said inflation was a top concern for their country. Shortly after the declaration of a global pandemic in March 2020, prices inched up then the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 pushed costs to new heights. Soon inflation concern soared, ultimately becoming the No. 1 worry in April 2022 before peaking in February 2023.

Eye-poppingly high prices took a hold of the public imagination at the start of the 2020s and the shock has yet to fully wear off. While red-hot inflation has cooled off a bit in several places it's currently considered the top issue in Australia, Canada (tied with health care), France, India, Poland, Singapore, Türkiye and the U.S.

The average price levels across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries as a whole were approximately 30% higher in September 2024 than they were in December 2019, just prior to the onset of the coronavirus crisis. The cumulative damage is clearly hard to shake off.

Ipsos' latest What Worries the World polling finds inflation is the top worry among one in three (32% on average across 29 countries), followed closely by concern about crime/violence (31%), poverty/social inequality (29%), unemployment (28%) and financial/political corruption (27%).

The blame game

Punishing prices has led to some voters want to, well, punish the politicians who were in power when inflation really took off in 2022.

Last year, voters in both the U.K. and the U.S. kicked incumbents out of office with the cost-of-living crisis being a leading factor. The May 2024 wave of the Ipsos Cost of Living Monitor found in the lead-up to both elections strong majorities in Great Britain (73%) and the U.S. (71%) said the policies of their national government were contributing the rising cost of living in their country.

Similar proportions in Germany (64%), which is holding federal elections on February 23, and Canada (67%), which must hold federal elections by October 20, are also pointing the finger at their government policies in the November 2024 wave of our Cost of Living Monitor. And even leaders, everywhere from India to France, who managed to hold on to their jobs saw their popularity take a hit as this inflationary era drags on.

Immigration emerges as key issue for some

Running alongside this hyper-vigilance about prices has been a hyper-focus on immigration.

While it's not a top issue at a global level, coming in as the No. 8 worry in the world right now, some of the most concerned countries either had, or will soon have, national elections. Just over one in three (35%) people in both Germany and Great Britain see immigration control as a key worry, while slightly more than one-quarter (27%) of Canadians and Americans think it's a big issue.

A growing proportion (62%) of Canadians, in particular, said immigration into their country was contributing to the rising cost of living in Canada in November 2024 — up 21 percentage points from the 41% who said the same in June 2022. And the debate over whether a wave of immigrants post-pandemic really did supercharge inflation was an issue soon-to-be former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried to address before ultimately announcing his resignation earlier this month.

Canada's neighbor to the south saw a more modest rise with 47% of Americans in June 2022 saying immigration was driving inflation going up to 55% in November 2024, while Germany (up five percentage points to 50%) and Great Britain (+18 points to 57%) also had upticks in the proportion pinning blame on immigrants for the cost of living.

The long run

On January 31, 2020, the U.K. officially left the European Union with some hoping that Brexit would shift the public's focus away from immigration. That hasn't happened.

Net migration is set to rise in the U.K. and immigration control is currently seen as top concern for 35% of people in Great Britain, up from 25% who said the same five years ago. At the same time concern about inflation has gone from 6% in Great Britain January 2020 to 34% in January 2025.

Since Brexit was enacted, the U.K. has had four prime ministers and like some other countries has seen anti-immigrant sentiment rise alongside prices. But worry about the other is uneven.

"Concern about immigration is very high among some groups but far lower among others," points out Mike Clemence, Research Director for Ipsos in the U.K. Our polling late last year finds one of the biggest divides among Brits is between Reform UK party supporters who believe immigration is a leading issue facing their country today (71%) and everybody else, including Conservatives (51%), Liberal Democrats (18%) and Labour (16%) supporters.

And while Brits predict inflation/prices won't continue to be such a pressing concern over the next five decades immigration/immigrants is viewed as the top topic for the country between 2024-2074.

The voters' will

The two Is (immigration and inflation) are also hot topics on the other side of the pond and Americans most want U.S. President Donald Trump to focus on both in his first 100 days.

Since being sworn in on January 20th, President Trump has moved swiftly on immigration by focusing first on deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records — which our polling finds has strong bipartisan support. The Make America Great Again (MAGA) leader hasn't been able to move as quickly on inflation so far, with the cost of everyday items like eggs predicted to soar even higher this year.

As we have all found out, bringing inflation fully to heel is a tricky job, while enacting strict immigration policies appears a bit easier. If right-leaning populists are elected in Germany and Canada in the months ahead voters can expect leaders may take a few pages out of MAGA's playbook.

During tough times people want someone, or something, to blame. While many are pointing the finger at incumbent governments some also are blaming lax immigration laws.

The Ipsos Almanac 2025 dives deeper into the factors that have led to the popularity of populist politicians like President Trump around the world, noting that rising prices during and after the pandemic "certainly generated acute economic pressures pushing us toward populism."

Ipsos' What Worries the World monthly polling reveals the cost-of-living crisis ultimately defined the first five years of this decade. If Trump's vision for America is any indication, it looks like immigration crackdowns could become one of the defining issues of the second the half of the 2020s. Stay tuned.

Check out our latest What Worries the World report for a deeper dive on how concerns have changed over time everywhere from Australia to the United States of America: https://www.ipsos.com/en/what-worries-world.