Americans' link between climate change and illness holds steady at 65%

The survey's causal statement is a modest one: people who said extreme heat, poor air quality or flooding had affected their daily activities in the past year were more likely to say climate change is raising the risk of heat-related, respiratory and insect-borne illness ^[8]. The cross-tab is an association measured in a single wave. It cannot tell you whether a smoky week changed a mind, or whether an existing view made the smoky week easier to recall.

The attribution figure has a shape across four waves: 58% in November 2023, 67% in July 2024, 65% in August 2025, 65% now ^[4]. First to last is seven points ^[16]. The three most recent sit inside the range the policy center itself calls statistically unchanged ^[4]. Belief about heat waves tracks it closely, with 62% saying US heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense, against 58% in November 2023 ^[9].

Preparedness moved less. Over the same 33 months, the share who say they know where to find a cooling center went from 30% to 35%, five points ^[17], and it held flat over the past year ^[7]. Set that against the 76% who say extreme outdoor heat affected their daily activities at least sometimes ^[5], and the distance is 41 points ^[18].

The item asks whether the respondent knows the location of a cooling center ^[7]. A "no" from someone in a town that operates none counts the same as a "no" from someone three blocks from an open one, so the answer is a joint measure of publicity and of supply, and this survey does not separate the two.

"Extreme heat is no longer just an occasional inconvenience," said Ken Winneg, the policy center's managing director of survey research ^[14]. "It is affecting Americans' household budgets and daily routines, from electricity bills to simply going outside" ^[15]. The self-reports behind that: 82% say heat had a major or minor impact on their electricity bills, 75% on outdoor activities, and 56% each on exercise and sleep ^[12].

Where the survey can be set beside an instrument, the numbers diverge. 38% said poor air quality from wildfire smoke affected their daily activities at least sometimes ^[5]; the American Lung Association's 2026 State of the Air report put 44% of Americans in areas earning failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution ^[6], six points higher ^[20]. The survey counts disruption that people noticed, and the Lung Association report counts monitored air.

The wave was in the field August 4 to 17 ^[3], before the season ended and before NOAA said in September that the summer had been the warmest in the contiguous 48 states in 132 years of record keeping ^[1][19]. The United Nations reported in the same period that global sea surface temperatures had "reached an all-time observed high" ^[2].