As we countdown the hours until 2025, many Americans are not expecting the new year to bring glad tidings. Only about a third of adults expect that the country will be better next year than this year, and even more expect things to get worse.
Just 35% of adults in a new Associated Press/NORC poll say they expect 2025 to be a better year than 2024. Another 39% expect the new year to be worse, and 23% say there won't be much of a difference.
Things become even more stark when split by party. Only 7% of Democrats say they expect things to improve next year. It's particularly grim when compared to Republicans polled at this time in 2020, after then-President Donald Trump lost the election. Even though Republicans' candidate didn't win, 31% still expected things to get better the following year. That year, Democrats were very optimistic overall about the direction of the country, with 79% feeling things would be better in 2021. But after a year of President Joe Biden's reign, that fell to 28% who were optimistic about 2022.
READ MORE: 68% of Nonvoters in 2020 Election Think US Headed in the Wrong Direction
An overwhelming majority of Republicans, 71%, however, expect 2025 to be a better year for America than 2024. That's a huge jump from Republican sentiments this time last year, when only 9% thought 2024 would be better than 2023. Comparatively, only 29% of Dems thought 2024 would beat out 2023.
When asked about their personal lives, Democrats were only slightly more optimistic. While 69% of Republicans thought things would get better for themselves, 19% of Democrats agreed. Overall, 42% thought things would be personally, though, with 24% expecting things to get worse, and another 33% said things would stay the same.
The poll suggests a few reasons why people might be generally more pessimistic about what 2025 has to offer. Two-thirds of those polled, 67%, felt the economy was doing poorly. When asked about how they expected Trump to manage different aspects of the government, over half were not confident.
Trump's ability to pick good cabinet members was most in doubt, with 55% lacking confidence in him, followed by his ability to manage the military (54% were not confident). The lack of confidence in his managing the White House and government spending were equal, both with 52% expressing worry.
The poll was conducted between December 5-9. The sample size was 1,251 adults, with a margin of error of 3.7%
