A new national survey released on July 31, 2025 by the Environmental Voter Project reveals that Americans think about climate change more often than issues like abortion, immigration, or gun violence but are far less likely to view it as a political problem. Instead, most Americans view climate change as a matter of personal behavior rather than political action.
When asked how to address climate change, 71% of the suggestions offered were individual-level solutions to climate change, like recycling or lifestyle changes, while only 18% were political solutions such as legislation, regulations, or protesting. In contrast, political responses dominated top-of-mind solutions for the other tent pole issues of gun violence (93%), abortion (62%), and immigration (62%).
The national survey of 3,250 adults conducted by Beacon Research from July 6-14 also found that:
- 18% of Americans think about climate change every day, twice the percentage (9%) who report thinking about the importance of abortion access.
- 58% of Americans think about climate change at least once a week, outpacing the number of Americans who think about immigration (55%), gun violence (50%), or abortion (39%).
- 49% of Americans say that addressing climate change is “extremely” or “very” important, compared to 42% for reforming immigration and 38% for furthering abortion access or restrictions.