Kinder Houston Area Survey: 2022 Results

The 41st annual Kinder Houston Area Survey is the last conducted by Stephen Klineberg, founding director of Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research and professor emeritus of sociology. Through intensive interviews reaching a total of more than 50,000 Houstonians over the years, the surveys have documented significant changes in the way area residents perceive and understand Houston’s ongoing challenges and opportunities. No city in the nation has been tracked in this way over such a long period of time.

The 2022 survey was conducted in Harris County during January and February of 2022, using a new, web-based survey methodology. It begins with an assessment of the top-of-the-head concerns of area residents, as traffic congestion subsides and economic anxieties re-emerge as “the biggest problem facing people in the Houston area today,” with crime a close second, followed by concerns about the COVID pandemic. It also assesses the deepening economic inequalities in this city, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.