Indiana Public Broadcasting/Ball State University Unveil Results from 2022 Hoosier Survey

By Press release submission

Dec 9, 2022

Indiana Public Broadcasting and Ball State University’s Bowen Center for Public Affairs have unveiled the results from the 2022 Hoosier Survey. This non-partisan public policy survey is designed to take the pulse of the state regarding the most pressing issues facing Indiana residents, and provides policymakers with a measure of public opinion on current issues facing the state and nation.

The full 2022 Hoosier Survey results can be found on the Bowen Center’s website.

“The Bowen Center for Public Affairs is grateful for its partnership with Indiana Public Broadcasting to once again provide the Hoosier Survey—a valuable tool for Hoosiers and state lawmakers,” said Dr. Chad Kinsella, director of the Bowen Center for Public Affairs and associate professor of Political Science at Ball State. “As evidenced once again in the most recent election cycle, the Hoosier Survey is a proven commodity that gets right to the heart of the matters most important to those living and working in our great state.”

This year’s Hoosier Survey featured interviews, conducted by Ironwood Insights Group, Inc., with 600 Indiana adults (age 18 or older). The interviews, which were conducted between Oct. 21 and Nov. 8, 2022, were done by telephone (299)—both by landline (42) and cell phone (257)—and online (301). The margin of sampling error for the complete set of data is ±4.0 percentage points.

Survey topics for the 2022 Hoosier Survey included demographics, approval, abortion, wages/income, public health, environment, polarization, and civic engagement. Some key takeaways include:

• Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (48.7 percent approval rating) remains popular among many Indiana residents, while 58.2 percent of Hoosiers disapprove of the overall job of President Joe Biden.

• A majority of Hoosiers surveyed (56.7 percent) believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Most Hoosiers—more than 76 percent—find abortion to be an important or at least somewhat important issue. Given this, Hoosier voters were almost even split on whether they would vote for a candidate that has a different stance on this issue, with 48 percent saying they would not and 52 percent saying they would or might still vote for such a candidate.

• Mirroring public opinion across several states and the nation, Hoosier views on marijuana are favorable, with more than 85 percent of respondents saying that marijuana should be legal in some form, and only 15 percent of respondents saying it should be illegal.

• Concern for the environment seems to be high—to the point where 51.2 percent of Hoosiers believe protecting the environment should take precedence over economic growth.

A first-of-its-kind public policy survey for the Bowen Center for Public Affairs, the inaugural Hoosier Survey was conducted in 2008. Several demographics are collected with each survey, including gender, political party, ideology, age, education, race, income, and religious service attendance.

Founded in March 2007, the Bowen Center for Public Affairs is a freestanding center at Ball State University in the College of Sciences and Humanities and is allied with the Department of Political Science. The center honors the integrity and leadership of Dr. Otis R. Bowen, the 44th Governor of Indiana and the 16th Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Ronald Reagan.

Advancing the ideals of civic literacy, community involvement, and public service embodied by Dr. Bowen’s career, the center provides networking, training, and research opportunities through its three institutes: Bowen Institute on Political Participation; Institute for Public Service; and Institute for Policy Research.