A new Gallup poll reveals the depth of gloom Americans feel about the future

WASHINGTON – A new poll shows that Americans’ hope for their future has fallen to a new low.

In 2025, only about 59% of Americans gave high ratings when asked to rate their quality of life in about five years, the lowest annual measure since Gallup began asking that question nearly 20 years ago.

It is a warning of the depth of the gloom that has descended on the country over the past few years. In the data, Gallup’s “present” and “future” lines tend to move together over time—when Americans feel good about the present, they tend to feel optimistic about the future. But the latest measures show that although satisfaction with current life has declined over the past decade, optimism for the future has declined even more.

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This score comes from a long-running Gallup question that asks Americans to rate their current and future lives on a scale of 0 to 10. Those who give themselves an 8 or higher on the question about the future are classified as optimistic.

“While present life is eroding, it’s almost exactly this optimism for the future that has eroded over the last 10 years or so,” said Dan Witters, research director for the Gallup National Index of Health and Well-Being.

Gallup rates people who rate their current lives at 7 or higher and their expected future at 8 or higher as “thriving.” Less than half of Americans, about 48%, now fall into this category.

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 chambers of Congress, Republicans are not as good about the future as they were in the final year of Trump’s first term.

Democrats’ optimism has declined significantly

Americans’ attitudes toward the future tend to shift when a new political party enters the White House—generally, the party in power becomes more optimistic, while the party not in control becomes more downbeat. For example, Democrats became more positive about the future after Joe Biden won the presidency, while Republicans’ expectations deteriorated.

These changes typically occur “at about the same amount, at the same level of magnitude, so they cancel each other out,” Witters points out.

This will not happen in 2025.

As the end of Biden’s term approached and the beginning of Trump’s second term, Democratic optimism dropped from 65% to 57%. Republicans have become more optimistic, but not enough to offset Democrats’ decline.

“Regime change in the White House was almost certainly a big driving factor behind what happened,” Whitters said. “And a lot of it was just because people who identified as Democrats took it seriously.”

But Republicans remain more gloomy about the future than they were in the final year of Trump’s first term. An AP-NORC poll in January showed that although the vast majority of Republicans still supported the president, his work on the economy had fallen short of many people’s expectations.

Hispanic adults are becoming more pessimistic

Hispanic adults’ optimism about the near future also declined during Trump’s first year in office, falling from 69% to 63%.

This decline was steeper than among white and black Americans, something Waiters said may be related to overall cost concerns, concerns about health care or concern about Trump’s recent immigration policies.

Last year, a survey by the American Communities Project found that people living in heavily Latino areas felt less hopeful about their future than in 2024. Trump’s popularity among Hispanics declined over the course of 2025, according to the AP-NORC poll, which also found that Hispanic adults reported higher levels of economic stress than other groups.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted in October showed that the administration’s tough immigration measures are most pronounced in Hispanic communities. About 6 in 10 Latinos said they had seen or heard about raids or arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in their community within the past six months.

“(Deportations) are something everyone can see and look at with their own eyes,” Wetters added. “But if you’re Hispanic, I think it’s fair to think it might happen a little closer to home.”

This data is part of the Gallup National Index of Health and Well-Being. The 2025 results are based on data collected over four quarterly measurement periods, totaling 22,125 interviews with US adults who are part of Gallup’s probability-based panel.