Urban Plates/Ipsos Poll 2020 New Year’s Resolutions

Washington, DC, December 11, 2019 — A new Ipsos public opinion survey of 2,011 Americans on behalf of Urban Plates shows that 38% of Americans plan to have New Year’s resolutions in 2020, about the same number as in 2019 (36%). Twenty percent (20%) of Americans plan to make multiple resolutions for 2020, while 18% plan to make just one. Hispanic Americans (56%) are more likely to say they will have a New Year’s resolution in 2020 than the general population.

More than half of Americans who report planning to have a New Year’s resolution for 2020 said their goals are related to finances (51%), eating healthier (51%), and being more active (50%). Two in five Americans (42%) report wanting to lose weight, and a similar number want to improve their mental well-being (38%) through stress reduction and other techniques, like mindfulness practices. One third of Americans are looking to improve their social connections (30%) by spending more time with friends and family, getting involved in their local community, improving their current relationships, and even falling in love. Skill development like learning a language or instrument, or taking up a sport (22%); being more environmentally friendly by reducing waste, recycling, reducing plastic use and volunteering for eco-minded causes (22%); and other health related goals like quitting smoking, reducing alcohol consumption, and getting more sleep, (19%) are resolutions for one in five Americans.  

For those Americans who plan to not have a New Year’s resolution in 2020, half (52%) said this is because New Year’s resolutions are not important to them. Seventeen percent (17%) of Americans are not motivated to make any resolutions (17%), 6% said they do not think they will succeed, and 3% said they are too busy (3%). Just under one in five Americans report they don’t feel the need for resolutions (16%).

Among the Americans who reported having a New Year’s resolution in 2019, 44% report they are either still going strong with their commitment, or they have already reached their goal. More than half (56%) report that they kept their resolution for less than a year. Losing motivation (45%) was the main reason for not keeping 2019 resolutions, followed by being too busy (20%), or not having the support they needed to complete their goal (11%). Fifteen percent (15%) report that they changed their mind about their resolution, so they did not keep it.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between November 12-14, 2019 on behalf of Urban Plates. For this survey, a sample of 2,011 adults age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact

Chris Jackson
Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

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