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LIFESTYLE

Most Aren’t Worried About Food Supply As Virus Continues

Americans plan to continue to grocery shop in the face of the coronavirus threat, and most aren’t worried that food and other necessary items will become hard to find.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 75% of American Adults are going to continue to shop for food. Just 12% plan to have food delivered to their house instead. Thirteen percent (13%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Forty-two percent (42%) are at least somewhat concerned that they may run short of food and other necessities because of the coronavirus, but that includes just 16% who are Very Concerned. Most (56%) don’t share that concern, with 21% who are Not At All Concerned.

Americans under 40 are the most likely to rely on a food delivery service and are far more concerned than their elders about a possible shortage of food and other necessities.

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The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted March 17-18, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Americans are only slightly more concerned about their personal safety as the coronavirus pandemic grows, but they’re noticeably less confident that the U.S. health care system can deal with the problem.

Half (50%) of women are concerned that they may run short of food and other necessities, compared to 37% of men. But women are only slightly more likely to turn to a food delivery service.

Blacks are more worried about the food supply than whites and other minority adults.

The majority of Americans in most demographic categories are not concerned that they are going to run short of food and other necessities because of the coronavirus, however.

The more one earns, the less they are worried about running short of food and other essential items.

Americans strongly support the government’s travel bans and school closings in response to the coronavirus threat, but one-in-four think panic, not reason, is driving some decisions.

One-in-four voters are prepared already to postpone the November presidential election – for the first time in U.S. history - if the coronavirus threat continues. Support is much higher for delaying upcoming primaries.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted March 17-18, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

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