In the latest High Point University Poll, more than half (53%) of North Carolinians said that the inflation from the past few months has been worse than they expected. Another quarter (25%) said inflation has been about as they expected, and only 17% said the inflation has not been as bad as expected.

More than half (52%) of North Carolina residents responding to the survey also said their inflation concerns affected a lot of their spending decisions. More than a third (35%) said inflation concerns affected some of their spending decisions, and only 11% said inflation concerns had not affected them much.

“Since June 2022, inflation has been falling,” said Brandon Dragone, visiting instructor of economics at HPU. “However, inflation is still higher than a year ago and certainly higher than recent memory. So, even though inflation is trending down, it may still be some time before prices become what we are accustomed to being stable. The Federal Reserve is still increasing interest rates to combat inflation, though now the concern is how these continued interest rate hikes might affect the rest of the economy.”

North Carolinians were also asked to consider how the prices they are currently paying for products compared to last year. The majority said prices are much higher for eggs (74%), meat (63%) and gas for their cars (59%). Less than half of the poll respondents said that they are paying a much higher price for fruits and vegetables (47%), milk (45%), natural gas (45%), bread (39%), electronics (36%), clothing (34%), water (30%) and toys (26%).

Less than half of respondents (45%) said prices for food and service at restaurants were much higher than last year. Less than two out of five North Carolina adults said they were paying much higher prices for home renovation (39%), health care (37%) and automotive repair (34%). Less than one-third of respondents said they are paying much higher prices for food delivery (30%), repair of household appliances (29%), plumbing (28%), delivery of online purchases (26%) and internet access (25%).

“Eggs and meat have surpassed gas for cars as what North Carolinians are telling us that they are paying more for now compared to a year ago,” said Brian McDonald, associate director of the HPU Poll. “Despite feeling like they are paying more for foods and other services, a majority of poll respondents are not canceling or delaying their health care.”

Most North Carolinians (64%) said they had not canceled any health care appointments because they thought the costs would be too high. A majority (56%) also said they had not delayed health care services in the past year out of fear of high prices.

NC residents – Inflation and Spending Decisions (January 2023)

How much have concerns about inflation affected major spending decisions you have made in the new year? 

A lot – 52%

Some – 35%

Not much at all – 11%

Unsure – 3% 

NC residents – Inflation Expectations (January 2023) 

Generally speaking, has the inflation we have seen over the past few months been worse than you expected, not as bad as you expected, or about what you expected? 

Worse than expected – 53%

Not as bad as expected – 17%

About as expected – 25%

Unsure – 5% 

NC residents – Inflation and Health Care Appointments (January 2023) 

In the past year, have you canceled any health care appointments because you thought the costs would be too high? 

Yes – 33%

No – 64%

Unsure – 4% 

NC residents – Inflation and Delayed Services (January 2023) 

In the past year, have you delayed any health care services because you thought the costs would be too high? 

Yes – 41%

No – 56%

Unsure – 4% 

The most recent HPU Poll of 1,006 respondent was fielded by the High Point University Survey Research Center on Jan. 17 through Jan. 21, as an online survey using a panel of respondents recruited and maintained by Dynata. Dynata sent invitations to its panel of N.C. respondents and the SRC collected responses on its Qualtrics platform. The SRC did all data analysis. The online sample is from a panel of respondents, and their participation does not adhere to usual assumptions associated with random selection. Therefore, it is not appropriate to assign a classic margin of sampling error for the results. In this case, the SRC provides a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points to account for a traditional 95% confidence interval for the estimates (plus or minus 3.1 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.1 (based on the weighting). The data is weighed toward population estimates for age, gender, race/ethnicity and education based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. Factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional errors into the findings of opinion polls. 

Further results and methodological details from the most recent survey and past surveys can be found at the Survey Research Center website. The materials online include past press releases as well as memos summarizing the findings (including approval ratings) for each poll since 2010. 

The HPU Poll reports methodological details in accordance with the standards set out by AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, and the HPU Survey Research Center is a Charter Member of the Initiative.

You can follow the HPU Poll on Twitter. 

Dr. Martin Kifer, chair and associate professor of political science, serves as the director of the HPU Poll, and Brian McDonald is the associate director of the HPU Poll.