Americans think 2025 will be a pretty flat year

The Ipsos Consumer Tracker asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.

Why we asked: Each year we ask people to rate the year past (see last issue) and the year ahead.

What we found: After steady improvement since the pandemic, our outlook for 2025 is mostly meh. We think it will be a little less great for us personally, about the same for our family and the nation, and a little less great for our jobs. When we looked back at 2024, Democrats rated the year a 5.2 out of 10 for the country vs 4.9 for Republicans. We were curious if that would shift when we look forward to this year. Yup, Republicans think 2025 will be better for the country than Democrats do (5.7 vs. 4.6), and are more optimistic at every level by a couple of tenths.

More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:

Home, office or hybrid? How Americans want to work is slowly shifting

Most think tariffs will increase prices, but aren’t doing anything about it

More people want brands to stay out of political and social issues

New signs show Americans are worried about budgets

Here's what Americans actually did during the holidays

The Ipsos Care-o-Meter: What does America know about vs. what does America care about