What does 2022 portend?

In 2020, 65% globally felt that 2019 had been a bad year for their country and 50% considered it a bad year for themselves and their family. In France, the score rose to 71% for the first question, which is not surprising considering the events of gilets jaunes, transport strikes, protests against pension reform, etc. On the other hand, dare we say ‘only’ 48% agreed that 2019 had not been a good year for them and their loved ones.

In 2021, the percentage of French people who believed that 2020 was a bad year for France rose to 78%, with 57% saying it was bad on a personal level. This is all the more strange when 2021 saw the last confinement, mass vaccination and the "whatever it takes" plan, helping millions of people.

Will things be better in 2022 economically? Perhaps not: 49% of French people predict an improvement (vs. 61% worldwide, driven by Chinese and Indian optimism). And on a human and social level? Not at all. French people are the last of all countries surveyed to believe that people will be more tolerant of each other in 2022 – just 6% think this is the case, compared to 28% on average around the world.

60% of French people think (hope?) that 2022 will be better than the year before, compared to 77% in the world. In this regard, each year seems to present itself as more antagonising to French opinion. While nine in 10 thought that the year ahead would be better in 2011, 2012, and 2013, this score plummeted to just 52% in relation to 2017 and held at 55% ahead of 2018 – partly because of the upcoming presidential election. After two years of pandemic, an uptick has finally been registered in 2022 (60%).

2022 Resolutions

The New Year is the time for good resolutions, for aspiring to change something in your life. But how determined are we when we make a resolution?

To find out, Ipsos launched its Omnibus and invited interviewees to take a position on a number of possible resolutions. We asked them if they would stick to it, if they would make resolutions without planning of keeping them, if they had already given up on them, or if they did not feel concerned.

“Dare to say no” was the top resolution, selected by 41% and more popular among those aged 16-24 (49%) and 25-34 (46%) respectively. This was followed by “Pay more attention to my expenses” (38% on average, including 47% of 16-24 and 32% of 25-34 year-olds). In third was the classic “Pay more attention to my diet/lose weight”. Although 26% of the 37% who selected it stated that they didn’t think they could do it. Meanwhile, 11% wanted to “reduce their consumption of alcohol and tobacco” but 8% had given up on this.

One in five (21%) French people wanted to “Switch to a more ecological mode of transport (walking, electric vehicle)”, especially Parisians and city-dwellers (26%). Half of these people had given up, with higher scores in rural areas.

17% want to "become home-owners", 11% are not convinced of achieving this while 7% have already given up, with higher scores in Paris.

Among the other possible resolutions, 11% will want to “Gain a motorcycle, car or boat driving licence”, including 38% of 16–24-year-olds, which is very good news for manufacturers and should make people rethink the alleged detachment of the younger generations towards vehicles. 12% want to "adopt an animal", 9% would like to but are not sure of doing so, 12% have already given up, including 15% of 55-75-year-olds. 7% are resolved to “Quit their job”, including 14% of 25–34-year-olds.