FILE - Sunrise turns the sky orange behind the U.S. Capitol building as it illuminates the U.S. Flags circling the base of the Washington Monument on March 23, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images)
How optimistic are you about the future?
A new Gallup poll found that hope for the future is at an all-time low among American adults.
By the numbers:
Only 59% of U.S. adults rate their future life satisfaction highly, which is the lowest measure since Gallup began asking the question almost 20 years ago.
What they're saying:
"While current life is eroding, it’s that optimism for the future that has eroded almost twice as much over the course of about that last 10 years or so," said Dan Witters, the research director of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index.
The backstory:
The finding comes from a longstanding Gallup question that asks Americans to rate their current and future lives on a scale from 0 to 10. Those who give themselves an 8 or higher on the question about the future are categorized as optimists.
Gallup assesses people who rate their current life at a 7 or higher and their anticipated future at an 8 or higher as "thriving." Fewer than half of Americans, about 48%, are now in that category.
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The other side:
It is common for life ratings to swing negatively or positively among political partisans when party control of the White House changes, Gallup said. Between 2020 and 2021, Democrats’ optimism grew by 4.4 points, while Republicans’ dropped by 5.9, mostly canceling each other out across the full population.
However:
That canceling out didn’t happen in 2025.
Toward the end of Biden’s term and the start of Trump’s second term, Democrats’ optimism fell from 65% to 57%. Republicans grew more hopeful, but not enough to offset Democrats’ drop.
Dig deeper:
Democrats and Hispanic Americans, in particular, were in a darker mood last year. But even with President Donald Trump back in the White House and his party in control of both houses of Congress, Republicans aren’t feeling nearly as good about the future as they were in the last year of Trump’s first term.
The Source: Information in this story was taken from data that is part of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index. The 2025 results are based on data collected over four quarterly measurement periods, totaling 22,125 interviews with U.S. adults who are part of the probability-based Gallup Panel. Further analysis was taken from The Associated Press. This story was reported from Detroit.