The 2018 Kinder Houston Area Survey: Tracking responses to income inequalities, demographic transformations, and threatening storms

This report measures perspectives on the local economy and concerns about flooding and resilience after Hurricane Harvey. It notes the growing divides in beliefs about the American future and the paradoxical increase in the belief that a high school diploma is sufficient to be successful in today’s economy. The report finds that residents continue to express increasingly positive attitudes toward immigration and more favorable feelings toward gays and lesbians, Muslims and undocumented immigrants. It measures the degree to which respondents were impacted by Hurricane Harvey and their assessments of policy proposals intended to mitigate future flooding. Finally, the report pulls from four years of “oversample” interviews in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties to document the way these counties differ in their demographics, support for government programs seeking to redress inequalities, and the importance they attach to transit, walkability and land-use planning.