A new Covid-19 Impact Survey by the Data Foundation in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis presents a snapshot of American personal responses to the current crisis.

Majority of respondents reported an increase in daily connections with family and friends. 8 in 10 report wearing face masks and around half reported working during the crisis. However, anxiety levels and depression levels are also up, especially so for younger adults and women. Across racial groups the highest level of anxiety was reported by Hispanic respondents.

The key contribution of this survey is that it covers a wide range of areas including physical and mental health, economic security and social dynamics and will track these trends over time.

The study is broken down into 18 regions across the country. In Minnesota for example there was a strong support for social distancing efforts and with a majority reported wearing face masks. 15 percent reported not able to deal with a $400 unexpected financial expense. (see report below).

Key findings reported on the site are quoted below:

  • “The American public generally reported being in good physical health (87 percent), but identified high levels of perceived “hopelessness” (41 percent) one or more days of the last week
  • Respondents offered a relatively negative economic outlook, with 40 percent indicating it is unlikely they will be employed 30 days from now
  • While households across America are generally complying with CDC recommendations, low-income households are less compliant with wearing masks, avoiding public places, maintaining social distancing, and rescheduling activities
  • Almost one-third of households responded they were not likely at all to download a smart-phone application to track locations and send notifications related to COVID symptoms, with variation by region“

The National Report and the Minnesota Report are included below. Other regions can be downloaded from the site. However the site does not report the dis-aggregated data in the report summaries.

covid_topline_national_wk1Download
covid_topline_region5_mnDownload

Researchers: Abigail Wozniak, Joe Willey, Jennifer Benz, and Nick Hart. COVID Impact Survey: Version 1 [dataset]. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research Center, 2020.

COVID-19 Impact Survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for the Data Foundation.