Amid One of the Most Extreme Weather Years on Record, These Places Are Not Worried About Climate Change

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24/7 Wall St. Insights

• Nationwide, 35.9% of Americans report not being worried about climate change.
• Lack of concern over climate change is highest in the Midwest.
• Climate change worry is positively correlated with climate change risk.
• In Grant County, West Virginia, 59.7% of residents are not worried about climate change, the most of any county nationwide.
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After making landfall in the Florida Panhandle on September 26, Hurricane Helene traveled 600 miles north all the way to Tennessee to become one of the most destructive hurricanes on record. One of the worst hit cities was Asheville, North Carolina, where full neighborhoods were destroyed and thousands were left stranded without food and power.

While some cities in the Midwest have advertised themselves as “climate havens” with low natural hazard risk, the scale and intensity of destruction in a city like Asheville has called that concept into question. Still, there some parts of the country where residents are relatively unconcerned about climate change.

Twice a year, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication conducts the most comprehensive survey on climate change knowledge and opinion in the United States. In their survey, Yale asked participants, "How worried are you about global warming?" with options ranging from "very worried" to "not at all worried". While nationwide 35.9% of Americans say they are not very or not at all worried about global warming, large regional disparities persist throughout the country.

In Grant County in northeast West Virginia, 59.7% of residents are not worried about climate change, the most of any county nationwide. Meanwhile, in New York County in southeast New York just 19.0% of residents are not worried about climate change, the least of any county. On average, 39.7% of residents in the Midwest are not worried about climate change, compared to 38.6% of residents in the South, 32.0% in the West, and 31.2% in the Northeast.

While climate worry is negatively correlated with factors like income and educational attainment, many of the counties that are least concerned with climate change are also relatively low risk for natural disaster, as measured by the FEMA National Risk Index.

To determine the counties that are not worried about climate change the most, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on climate change belief from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication . Counties were ranked based on the percentage of surveyed residents who answered that they are "not very" or "not at all worried" about global warming in 2023. Supplemental data on median household income and the percentage of adults with at least a bachelor's degree is from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and is for 2022. Data on natural hazard risk rating is from FEMA .

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