76% of Coloradans Worry They Won’t Be Able to Afford Life in Colorado in the Future, a 2026 Poll Found

A 2026 poll asked how costs are weighing on Coloradans, and most are worried about the years ahead.

Here’s what the poll found, and how it might compare with your own outlook.

Note: This is general information, not financial advice. Wage rates and housing figures are subject to change.

How the Poll Worked

The Colorado Health Foundation has run its Pulse Poll every year since 2020, and the 2026 edition surveyed 2,240 adults between March 14 and April 9, 2026.

According to the foundation’s findings report, pollsters invited adults by text, phone call, email and postcard, and people answered by phone or online.

If pollsters reached you, you could have answered in English or Spanish.

A poll talks to a slice of the state, not everyone, so each result can land a few points high or low.

That range is the margin of error, so a 76% result is likely within about 73% to 79%.

The results came out in July 2026, after the questions went out that spring.

Here’s what came back, starting with the question behind the 76% and ending with how Coloradans say they’re getting by.

The Headline Worry

In the poll, 76% of adults said they’re very or somewhat worried about being able to afford to live in Colorado in the future.

That’s up from 70% in the foundation’s 2025 poll, which surveyed 2,333 adults from April 19 to May 18, 2025.

If you worry about it, you’re in the majority.

Among adults in households earning under $30,000, 94% share the worry.

Housing and Cost of Living

Housing and the cost of living drew the same score: 85% of Coloradans called each an extremely or very serious problem for the state.

In 2025, housing scored 84% and the cost of living 89%.

Asked with no list to choose from, 25% named the cost of living or inflation as the most important issue facing Colorado, up from 13% in 2025.

Overall, 32% worry they might lose their home or have to move because they can’t afford the rent or mortgage.

Whether you rent or own matters here: 52% of renters share that worry, against 23% of homeowners.

Asked what’s behind people being unable to afford housing, 76% named wages not keeping up with rising housing prices as a major cause, the top answer on the poll’s list.

Large private investors buying homes and apartments came next at 69%, and landlords raising rents too much followed at 50%.

Not enough housing being built in their community drew the lowest score of the five causes, at 25%.

It isn’t only a big-city worry.

The news outlet KUNC reported that at least 70% of people in each geographic region rated the affordability issues as extremely or very serious.

Health Care Costs

Health care costs weren’t far behind: 82% of Coloradans rated the cost of health care as an extremely or very serious problem, up from 75% in 2025.

Asked to compare their family’s health care costs with last year, 65% said they went up and 26% said they stayed the same.

If you pay co-pays and deductibles, you may share a common frustration: 60% of adults were dissatisfied with those out-of-pocket costs, and 36% were satisfied.

Care and Meals Put Off

In the 12 months before the survey, 48% of Coloradans said they postponed medical or dental care.

Broken out, 37% put off medical care, 38% put off dental care and 29% put off mental health care.

All three are up from 2025, when the figures were 30%, 33% and 21%.

If you’ve put off a checkup or a dental visit, nearly four in ten adults did the same.

Fewer adults, 17%, said they skipped meals because they couldn’t afford food, up from 12% in 2025.

In the same 12 months, 22% skipped a utility payment or paid it late, and 19% did the same on a loan.

Cutting back on recreation and entertainment was the most common answer on the poll’s list, at 73%.

Living Comfortably

One in four Coloradans, 25%, described themselves as living comfortably and adding to their savings, about the same as the 22% who said so in 2025.

Another 35% are living comfortably without adding to savings.

If you're just getting by, you're with the 29% who described their finances that way.

Another 9% said they're struggling financially.

Compared with a year earlier, 37% said they're worse off financially and 24% said they're better off, while 38% said about the same.

In 2025, those shares were 39% worse off and 21% better off.