71% of global citizens are optimistic 2026 will be better
Ipsos has released its global 30-country survey on what the public predicts about the world in 2026.
Key findings at a glance
66%
say 2025 was a bad year for their country
50%
say it was a bad year for them and their family
71%
predict 2026 will be a better year than 2025
49%
predict the global economy will be better next year than this year
59%
think there will be protests against the way their country is being run
82%
plan to spend more time with family and friends in 2026
2025: How it went
Two in three (66% on average globally) think it was a bad year for their country. And after a year filled with political turmoil, 90% in France say it was a bad year for their country, the highest across 30 countries.
One in two feel this year was a bad one for them and their family, while the other half (50%) said it was good. Argentinians are the most likely to say it was a bad year personally for them (67%) in the wake of dramatic political and economic shifts in Argentina in recent years.
People are feeling much better about things than they were in 2020 when a whopping 90% (on average globally) said it was a bad year for their country and 70% said it was a bad year for them personally when we did polling amid the first year of the pandemic.
2026: How it might go
Close to three-quarters (71%) are optimistic 2026 will be better than 2025, while 29% don’t think next year be better than this year. The French (41%) are the least likely out of 30 countries to think next year will be better.
Meanwhile, there continues to be muted hope that the war in Ukraine will end with a mere 29% thinking the full-scale invasion will end next year.
Just under half (49%) predict the global economy will be better in 2026 than in 2025, while a similar proportion (51%) think the economy will be worse. In a year marked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s worldwide tariff war economic sentiment dropped or stayed the same in 19 of 30 countries as some countries saw big swings in either direction.
Optimism that the future will be better than the present dropped 9 percentage points to 65% at the end of 2022 (a year marked by inflation, a global pandemic and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine) and has yet to fully recover. And belief that the global economy would be better dropped 15 pp to 46% in 2022 and remains muted.
About the Study
These are the results of a 30-country survey conducted by Ipsos on its Global Advisor online platform and, in India, on its IndiaBus platform, between Friday, October 24, and Friday, November 7, 2025. For this survey, Ipsos interviewed a total of 23,642 adults aged 18 years and older in India, 18-74 in Canada, Republic of Ireland, Malaysia, South Africa, Türkiye, and the United States, 20-74 in Thailand, 21- 74 in Indonesia and Singapore, and 16-74 in all other countries.
To access the full 2026 Ipsos Predictions Survey report, please click here.
Be sure to also revisit our 2025 Year in Review.
