In fiscal year 2023, the combination of expiring federal COVID-19 pandemic aid, slowing tax revenue growth, and rising costs for Medicaid led to an increase in the share of state revenue dedicated to Medicaid of 17.8%, or $44.4 billion, over the previous year—the largest single-year rise in at least two decades. States spent 15.1% of every state-generated dollar on Medicaid, up 2.2 percentage points from the previous year, though still about half a cent less than the 15-year average.
Philadelphians’ views of their city have improved dramatically since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, despite lingering concern about public safety and personal finances. In a Pew survey conducted from January to March 2025, nearly two-thirds of respondents cited crime as the top issue facing the city. Half of those surveyed reported hearing gunshots in their neighborhood in the previous year.
After two consecutive fiscal years of widespread tax revenue declines, states had fewer resources to work with at the start of calendar year 2025 than they had in recent years, which limited their capacity to fund tax cuts, expanded public services, recession preparedness, and other priorities.
Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeastern United States for three days in September 2024, leaving a path of destruction and hundreds of casualties throughout North Carolina and five other states. Record-breaking rainfall devastated western North Carolina and triggered landslides that left many areas cut off from essential services for days. The mountain tourist hub of Asheville faced unprecedented destruction, including widespread property damage and disruptions to critical infrastructure.
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Communities throughout the country share common needs: affordable connections to broadband Internet, modern and reliable energy infrastructure, effective responses to mental health challenges, and ways to resolve legal disputes more quickly and fairly. To address these issues, Pew collaborates with states and local governments to find and promote evidence-based solutions that help provide stability and opportunity.
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The global ocean teems with life, and it contributes to the vital cycles that keep people and our planet healthy. But the seas are vulnerable to overfishing, loss of habitat such as seagrasses and mangroves, ineffective fisheries management, plastic pollution, and declining biodiversity. These mounting losses affect the coastal communities that depend on the ocean for food and jobs.
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For more than 75 years, we have used data to make a difference
Peatlands are wetland ecosystems that store more carbon than any other natural habitat. By removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and trapping carbon from dead organic matter in waterlogged conditions, they serve as a critical tool for moderating global temperatures.
Are states investing enough in roads and bridges to prevent them from falling apart and to avoid leaving future generations on the hook for a costly repair bill? Historically, a lack of consistent information on the condition and needs of this infrastructure in states has limited policymakers’ ability to answer this question, prevented governments from making fully informed investment decisions to address maintenance backlogs, and hindered public accountability and transparency about whether decisions are fiscally sustainable.