Survey Says is a weekly sequence rounding up a very powerful polling tendencies or information factors it’s essential to find out about, plus a vibe test on a pattern that’s driving politics or tradition.
With the winter holidays approaching—and with this marking the final formal version of Survey Says for the yr—it’s a pure second to take inventory. New polling gives a revealing snapshot of how People are closing out 2025 and how much temper they’re carrying into 2026.
The toplines aren’t encouraging.
A brand new survey from YouGov requested People to evaluate this previous yr each personally and nationally, and what emerges is a rustic that feels worn down, uneasy, and distinctly unconfident about what comes subsequent.
Let’s begin with the non-public assessments. Simply 9% of People stated 2025 was “nice” for them, and 29% known as it “good.” The biggest share—37%—landed within the center, describing the yr as being solely “OK.” However the distribution’s darker edge was arduous to disregard: 15% stated the yr was “unhealthy,” and one other 10% known as it “horrible.”
In different phrases, roughly 1 in 4 People stated their expertise of 2025 was actively adverse.
If People’ private expertise of the yr is lukewarm at finest, they’re much more downbeat in regards to the nation’s efficiency in 2025. Solely 24% rated the yr as “good” or “nice” for america. One other 24% known as it simply “OK.” However almost half—48%—stated the yr was “unhealthy” or “horrible” for the nation as a complete.
That dissatisfaction reveals up clearly when People had been requested to fee how issues are going nationally on a 1-to-10 scale. Forty-seven % positioned their reply between one and 4. However simply 30% gave the yr an seven or increased.
Different polling factors in the identical route. The most recent Economist/YouGov survey discovered that 56% of People stated the nation was “off on the incorrect observe,” in contrast with simply 35% who stated it was headed in the proper route.
Optimism, in different phrases, is in short supply.
“It’s not shocking that, general, the outcomes point out the extent of ambivalence and negativity that they do,” Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse College, advised Each day Kos. “The nation has been in deep, polarized political and social battle, and that normally doesn’t really feel like a great factor to most individuals.”
Reeher cautioned towards studying these sorts of questions too actually, although. Assessments of “how the yr was” typically act as proxies for a tangle of different forces: private psychology, monetary stress, perceptions of nationwide decline, and what social scientists name expressive bias.
“There’s a lot noise in these sorts of questions,” he stated. “Respondents are sometimes signaling one thing else that they need others to find out about them,” including that, on this case, that may very well be views in regards to the president himself or about politics extra usually.
“It’s merely inconceivable to unwind all these threads,” Reeher stated.
Nonetheless, the broader gloom didn’t materialize out of skinny air. Polling all through the second half of 2025 has proven rising economic anxiety—notably around the holidays—alongside sagging approval ratings for President Donald Trump. These pressures look like shaping how individuals look again on the yr, even when they don’t totally clarify it.
On the identical time, Reeher is fast to notice that pessimism in regards to the future lengthy predates Trump.
“The polarization we’re experiencing is just not new or a product of Trump, and neither is the pessimism in regards to the future,” he stated. “That’s been a rising function for the reason that mid-2000s, with some short-term exceptions.”
Even so, the political undercurrent within the YouGov information is unmistakable. Forty-three % of People describe 2025 as “one of many worst” years in American historical past. A few of that’s virtually definitely recency bias, or overemphasizing the results of current occasions. However the willingness to use such language to the yr is putting.
Notably, YouGov didn’t ask respondents why they felt this manner. However the solutions to questions on New Yr’s resolutions supply some clues. The most typical objectives had been modest and acquainted: exercising extra (25%), being completely satisfied (23%), consuming more healthy (22%), and saving cash (21%).
Extra forward-looking ambitions had been far much less widespread. Simply 9% stated they deliberate to pursue a profession aim in 2026, and solely 12% hoped to pay down debt. Even saving cash—named by 21% of People—comes throughout much less as optimism than as self-protection, a mirrored image of what number of households are nonetheless feeling financially boxed in.
Wanting forward gives little reassurance in regards to the nation’s trajectory.
Whereas 48% of People believed 2026 can be good or nice for them personally, solely 31% stated it could be nice for the nation. Worse, 27% predicted it could be one of many worst years in American historical past.
These are dramatic numbers, however they probably replicate generalized pessimism quite than a literal comparability to historic calamities. The query requested about “the most effective years,” not whether or not the nation would enhance. Nonetheless, the sample is evident: Much more People count on hassle for the nation than for themselves.
It’s a well-recognized dynamic in polling. Individuals typically imagine they’ll handle personally—at the same time as they conclude that the broader system is failing.
So how severely ought to we take these responses? Reeher urged some warning in studying an excessive amount of into polls like YouGov’s.
“Those that are saying the previous yr has been nice are most likely attempting to sign that they help the president,” he stated. “Those that are saying that the previous yr has been one of many worst are most likely attempting to inform the surveyor that they actually, actually don’t just like the president. The individuals extra within the political center are most likely reacting to all of the battle and political chaos, and are both ambivalent or adverse.”
That doesn’t make the information meaningless. Nevertheless it does restrict how a lot will be drawn from it.
At finest, polls like this supply a studying of nationwide temper—an emotional barometer quite than a exact analysis. Anybody attempting to extract greater than that does so at their very own peril, politically or in any other case.
Any updates?
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Each day Kos has reported extensively on the cracks forming in Trump’s coalition—first amongst Latinos, then young voters. Now, new data from NBC Information Determination Desk and SurveyMonkey confirms the pattern. The biggest declines in sturdy help since April are amongst Republicans general, notably those that establish with Trump’s MAGA motion. MAGA Republicans proceed to extensively approve of Trump, with 70% saying they strongly approve of him, however that represents an 8-percentage-point drop from earlier this yr. In the meantime, fewer Republicans report being a part of the MAGA motion in contrast with earlier in 2025, highlighting early signs of fraying in Trump’s base.
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People remain deeply ambivalent in regards to the fast unfold of synthetic intelligence, at the same time as they’re more and more utilizing it on the job. Gallup studies that the share of U.S. staff utilizing AI a minimum of a couple of occasions a yr elevated from 40% to 45% between the second and third quarters of 2025. Frequent use additionally elevated from 19% to 23%. So, whereas People might not love AI, extra of them are studying to stay with it.
Vibe test
It’s straightforward sufficient to freeze up over vacation items, particularly with individuals you don’t see typically. Wanting to present one thing that indicators your thought and care doesn’t at all times include the readability about what that one thing ought to be.
New polling from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research gives some reassurance. Almost 9 in 10 say it’s acceptable to present money (88%) or present playing cards (87%). Even regifting or giving secondhand gadgets—lengthy handled as a social fake pas—now clears the bar for a stable majority: 64% say it’s effective.
Age, unsurprisingly, shapes these views. Adults ages 18 to 45 are considerably extra open to secondhand items than these 45 and older (73% vs. 58%), reflecting the growing normalization of thrift and resale tradition. The flip facet is that enthusiasm for money and present playing cards declines with age, suggesting older People nonetheless place extra weight on presentation—or a minimum of pretense.
The ballot seems past presents as effectively, analyzing how individuals are spending the vacations. Almost half of adults (44%) plan to be in mattress earlier than midnight on New Yr’s Eve—an understated method to shut out a yr many appear prepared to maneuver on from.
Nonetheless, indicators of seasonal enthusiasm stay. A few third of People say they’ve worn or plan to put on a vacation sweater or equipment this month. And 30% are entering into the spirit by shopping for items for his or her pets—current firm included. This yr, we acquired our shelter pooch a DNA take a look at, and I’m actually excited to be taught extra about him.
As for Christmas Day itself, traditions range. Almost 1 / 4 of People (24%) say they’ll watch sports activities, whereas 5% plan to move to a movie show.
Please pontificate within the feedback and inform us the way you’re spending the vacations. Are you protecting issues low-key? Sticking to outdated traditions? Spoiling your pets? Nevertheless you’re marking the season, we wish to hear it—and completely satisfied holidays!
