Survey Says is a weekly collection rounding up an important polling traits or knowledge factors it’s essential find out about, plus a vibe examine on a development that’s driving politics or tradition.
With the winter holidays approaching—and with this marking the final formal version of Survey Says for the 12 months—it’s a pure second to take inventory. New polling affords a revealing snapshot of how People are closing out 2025 and how much temper they’re carrying into 2026.
The toplines are usually not encouraging.
A brand new survey from YouGov requested People to evaluate this previous 12 months 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 “great” for them, and 29% referred to as it “good.” The biggest share—37%—landed within the center, describing the 12 months as being solely “OK.” However the distribution’s darker edge was exhausting to disregard: 15% stated the 12 months was “bad,” and one other 10% referred to as it “terrible.”
In different phrases, roughly 1 in 4 People stated their expertise of 2025 was actively unfavourable.
If People’ private expertise of the 12 months is lukewarm at finest, they’re much more downbeat concerning the nation’s efficiency in 2025. Solely 24% rated the 12 months as “good” or “great” for the USA. One other 24% referred to as it simply “OK.” However practically half—48%—stated the 12 months was “bad” or “terrible” for the nation as an entire.
That dissatisfaction exhibits up clearly when People had been requested to price how issues are going nationally on a 1-to-10 scale. Forty-seven p.c positioned their reply between one and 4. However simply 30% gave the 12 months an seven or larger.
Different polling factors in the identical course. The most recent Economist/YouGov survey discovered that 56% of People stated the nation was “off on the wrong track,” in contrast with simply 35% who stated it was headed in the best course.
Optimism, in different phrases, is in brief provide.
“It’s not surprising that, overall, the results indicate the level of ambivalence and negativity that they do,” Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse College, instructed Each day Kos. “The country has been in deep, polarized political and social conflict, and that usually doesn’t feel like a good thing to most people.”
Reeher cautioned in opposition to studying these sorts of questions too actually, although. Assessments of “how the year 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 so much noise in these kinds of questions,” he stated. “Respondents are often signaling something else that they want others to know about them,” including that, on this case, that may very well be views concerning the president himself or about politics extra usually.
“It’s simply impossible to unwind all these threads,” Reeher stated.
President Donald Trump, proven on Dec. 17.
Nonetheless, the broader gloom didn’t materialize out of skinny air. Polling all through the second half of 2025 has proven rising financial nervousness—notably across the holidays—alongside sagging approval scores for President Donald Trump. These pressures look like shaping how individuals look again on the 12 months, even when they don’t absolutely clarify it.
On the similar time, Reeher is fast to notice that pessimism concerning the future lengthy predates Trump.
“The polarization we are experiencing is not new or a product of Trump, and neither is the pessimism about the future,” he stated. “That’s been a growing feature since the mid-2000s, with some temporary exceptions.”
Even so, the political undercurrent within the YouGov knowledge is unmistakable. Forty-three p.c of People describe 2025 as “one of the worst” years in American historical past. A few of that’s virtually actually recency bias, or overemphasizing the consequences of latest occasions. However the willingness to use such language to the 12 months is hanging.
Notably, YouGov didn’t ask respondents why they felt this manner. However the solutions to questions on New 12 months’s resolutions supply some clues. The commonest targets had been modest and acquainted: exercising extra (25%), being joyful (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 purpose 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 supplies little reassurance concerning the nation’s trajectory.
Whereas 48% of People believed 2026 can be good or nice for them personally, solely 31% stated it will be nice for the nation. Worse, 27% predicted it will be one of many worst years in American historical past.
These are dramatic numbers, however they doubtless replicate generalized pessimism quite than a literal comparability to historic calamities. The query requested about “one of the best years,” not whether or not the nation would enhance. Nonetheless, the sample is obvious: Way more People count on bother for the nation than for themselves.
It’s a well-known 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 who are saying the past year has been great are probably trying to signal that they support the president,” he stated. “Those who are saying that the past year has been one of the worst are probably trying to tell the surveyor that they really, really don’t like the president. The people more in the political middle are probably reacting to all the conflict and political chaos, and are either ambivalent or negative.”
That doesn’t make the information meaningless. Nevertheless it does restrict how a lot may be drawn from it.
At finest, polls like this supply a studying of nationwide temper—an emotional barometer quite than a exact analysis. Anybody making an attempt to extract greater than that does so at their very own peril, politically or in any other case.
Any updates?
People stay deeply ambivalent concerning the fast unfold of synthetic intelligence, at the same time as they’re more and more utilizing it on the job. Gallup reviews that the share of U.S. workers utilizing AI no less than just a few occasions a 12 months elevated from 40% to 45% between the second and third quarters of 2025. Frequent use additionally elevated from 19% to 23%. So, whereas People could not love AI, extra of them are studying to stay with it.
Vibe examine
It’s simple sufficient to freeze up over vacation items, particularly with individuals you don’t see typically. Wanting to provide one thing that indicators your thought and care doesn’t all the time include the readability about what that one thing ought to be.
New polling from the Related Press-NORC Heart for Public Affairs Analysis affords some reassurance. Almost 9 in 10 say it’s acceptable to provide money (88%) or present playing cards (87%). Even regifting or giving secondhand objects—lengthy handled as a social fake pas—now clears the bar for a stable majority: 64% say it’s positive.
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 rising 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 no less than pretense.
The ballot seems past presents as nicely, analyzing how individuals are spending the vacations. Almost half of adults (44%) plan to be in mattress earlier than midnight on New 12 months’s Eve—an understated method to shut out a 12 months many appear prepared to maneuver on from.
Nonetheless, indicators of seasonal enthusiasm stay. A couple of third of People say they’ve worn or plan to put on a vacation sweater or equipment this month. And 30% are moving into the spirit by shopping for items for his or her pets—current firm included. This 12 months, we received 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 fluctuate. 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 previous traditions? Spoiling your pets? Nevertheless you’re marking the season, we need to hear it—and joyful holidays!
