Three in five Americans say the cost of living is going in the wrong direction
Washington DC, March 4, 2025 – On the eve of President Donald Trump’s address to a joint section of congress, the latest Reuters/Ipsos survey shows that many Americans remain pessimistic about the direction of the country generally. Most Americans do not believe that Ukraine started the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and most do not agree with the isolationist sentiment that Ukraine’s problems are none of our business. A majority of Americans support the general idea of downsizing the federal government, but many do not support the current policies and policy proposals that are being floated to do that.
Detailed Findings:
- Thirty-four percent of Americans say that the country is headed in the right direction, compared to 49% who say it is off on the wrong track. When it comes to several specific issues, Americans are more likely to say things are off on the wrong track than going in the right direction: cost of living (22% right direction / 60% wrong track), the national economy (31% right direction / 51% wrong track), national politics (33% right direction / 50% wrong track), American foreign policy (33% right direction / 49% wrong track), and employment and jobs (33% right direction / 47% wrong track). Immigration policy is the only specific issue where more Americans say it is going in the right direction (48%) than off on the wrong track (39%).
- When it comes to foreign policy, a majority of Americans support Ukraine’s use of U.S. – supplied arms to strike within Russia (57%), and three in five Americans say they disagree with the statement “the problems of Ukraine are none of our business, and we should not interfere.” Seventy percent of Americans say that Russia is more to blame than Ukraine for starting their war, while 21% do not know; just seven percent of Americans say that Ukraine is more to blame than Russia.
- Just 13% of Americans say that the U.S. should pressure Denmark into selling Greenland to the United States. About a quarter say that the United States should retake control of the Panama Canal from Panama (26%).
- While a majority of Americans support downsizing the federal government (59%), fewer Americans support the specific tactics that have been taken, or are being proposed, to do so, like the taskforce for cutting federal spending that was created by the White House and is led by business executive Elon Musk (44%), closing down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (42%), firing tens of thousands of federal workers (40%), closing down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or the Department of Education (32%, each respectively).
About the Study
This Ipsos poll was conducted March 3-4, 2025, on behalf of Reuters using the KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a representative sample of 1,174 U.S. residents, age 18 or older.
The study was conducted in English. The data were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race and ethnicity, census region, metropolitan status, education, household income, party ID, and 2024 presidential vote. Party ID benchmarks are from the 2024 NPORS annual survey. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2024 March supplement of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS).
The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.17 for all adults. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.
For more information on this news release, please contact:
Chris Jackson
Senior Vice President, U.S.
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]
Annaleise Azevedo Lohr
Director, U.S.
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]
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