Data collected from a 1978 Iowa Poll shows that the majority of Iowans had felt poor at some point in their lifetimes, while a quarter of Iowans currently felt poor. Further, Iowans overwhelmingly felt that high inflation at the time had harmed them financially. These data come from Iowa Poll #229, a random sample survey of 600 Iowans from March 1978, which has been restored as part of a larger IPOL project to recover lost data from past Iowa Polls.

The first question asks respondents “Have you ever in the past felt you were poor?”, with answer choices including “yes”, “no”, and “no opinion”. 69% of respondents said yes, they had felt poor, 30% said they had never felt poor in the past, and only 1% of respondents had no opinion on feeling poor.

The next question asks respondents, “Do you feel now that you are poor?”, with answer choices including “yes”, “no” and “no opinion”. Despite the majority of respondents feeling poor at some point in their lifetimes, only 27% of respondents said they still felt poor. 71% of respondents answered “no”, while 2% answered “no opinion”.

The final question probed into how respondents felt inflation had impacted them, allowing them to select from “benefitted,” “harmed,” “no difference,” and “don’t know”. At the time, inflation had recently peaked at over 11% in 1974 couple years earlier before dropping to 6% and was climbing again at 7.6% in 1978. When looking at the data excluding the response “don’t know”, “benefitted” is the least popular response (10%). Most respondents stated that inflation had harmed them (67%). 20% of respondents thought that inflation made no financial impact on them.

Iowa Poll #229, conducted by the Des Moines Register, was administered to a random sample of Iowans in March 1978. In addition to the questions about respondents' financial situations, the survey asked respondents their opinions on a wide variety of topics, including whether taxes were too high, the creation of an independent Palestinian state, LGBTQ+ individuals holding different positions, and entertainment consumption. Understanding Iowans’ past opinions on these topics can help us understand how perspectives have changed and what ideas have remained popular. IPOL has also been working with UI Libraries and the Des Moines Register to restore data from dozens of Iowa Polls from the 1960s to early 1980s. More information about the project can be found here. We are working to release a full report on our findings as we analyze additional questions.