Before many of our thoughts turned to turkey, we introduced you to the 2021 results of our annual Metro Atlanta Speaks (MAS) survey, with links to slide decks, reports, and videos. There’s even an interactive dashboard. Now post food coma, we take closer looks at specific questions, particular topics, and/or clustered answers given by demographic group. Our first post deals with the perennially asked and perpetually popular question: Which issue is the biggest problem facing residents in the Metro Atlanta area today? As you can see on Chart 1, 32 percent of the region’s residents selected crime as the biggest problem in 2021, up from 16% (but still ranked #2) in 2020. With the exception of human services, every other possible choice lost some share from 2020 to 2021. Chart 2 zooms into the last three years of 2019-2021. The 2019 to 2020 jumps in shares selecting public health and race relations is even more evident, as well as the large increase this year in respondents selecting crime as the biggest problem.

A key caveat: The geographic area in which respondents live has changed somewhat over the period, as does the sample size and the methodology of the survey (online became a component in 2020).

The tables below offer some numbers, rankings, and change data behind the charts. In 1a, it is evident that crime has always ranked high amongst the region’s concerns, holding at #2 from 2015-2020 before rising to #1 in 2021. Economy was #1 in 2013, coming out of the Great Recession, but then quickly lost share to transportation and others before rising back with pandemic-related job losses to #3 in both 2020 and 2021. Public health and race relations were ranked near the bottom until they both spiked in 2020 with the pandemic’s onset, settling back only slightly in the 2021 edition. Transportation was the dominant choice from 2014-2019 but dropped off to 5th in 2020 and 4th in 2021.

The survey data is useful below the regional level, too. For each of the 11 counties in the Atlanta Regional Commission as well as the City of Atlanta, there are statistically significant answers for all questions. Chart 3 shows that not only is crime the #1 selected biggest problem at the regional level in 2021, but it is the top issue of concern in each jurisdiction surveyed. There is more variation between the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th most frequent responses by county. The majority of counties have public health as the #2 concern, but Cobb, Forsyth, and Henry select economy as their #2. Transportation is ranked a relatively higher concern in Cherokee, DeKalb, and Fulton Counties. Cobb, Douglas, and Rockdale are far more likely than others to choose human services as a top problem.