Americans more hopeful about 2025 than they were for 2024 — CBS News poll

Heading into 2025 Americans are more hopeful than discouraged — and more outright hopeful than they were heading into 2024. Last year was more mixed.

It does look like this very political past year is affecting that larger outlook going into next year.

Among those who say they’re generally hopeful about 2025, their top reason is that Donald Trump will be president. 

His upcoming presidency ranks even higher among things making them feel hopeful about 2025 than their outlook for their own personal relationships and finances.

The hopeful group includes a lot of Republicans, underscoring the extent to which politics seems to play a role in outlook generally. 

And of those Americans who say they’re generally discouraged about 2025 — a group that includes a lot of Democrats — their top reason is that Donald Trump will be president.

That said, the new year may not see too many Americans making personal changes. Just over a third will be making New Year’s resolutions, the bulk of which include — as we tend to see each year we ask — ideas around improving one’s health and exercising more. 

For the vast majority of Americans, getting more involved in politics isn’t one of them. And most will try to avoid political talk over the holidays.

Economy

For now, ratings of the national economy are about the same as last month, and about half of Americans say their own financial situation is good.

To those who say things are bad, it’s much the same story ending 2024 as it has been for years: inflation and prices are driving that sentiment.

Those economic sentiments also weighed on President Biden’s approval over much of his term, and his rating as he nears the end of that term remains in negative territory, about where it has hovered for a long time. There’s been negative reaction to his decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden, and that tracks closely with partisanship.

We’ve also long seen the pull of partisanship in economic evaluations, and here, people tell us about it directly. Among the (relatively few) Republicans who say the economy is good, a top answer they give for why this is the case is that Donald Trump is going to be president. For Republicans who say the economy is bad, a top answer they give about why is that Joe Biden is president.

The economic lookahead on some economic aspects is net positive but also partisan. Slightly more Americans, driven by a big majority of Republicans, think Trump’s policies will lower grocery prices than raise them. 

By two to one, more Americans think Trump’s policies will lead to more U.S. technological advances than fewer. 

Support for tariffs, though, is sharply partisan, heavily favored by Republicans but not by most independents or Democrats. There’s been a bit of an increase since November in the percentage who think tariffs would lead to higher prices.

Americans also think Trump’s policies are more likely to increase peace and stability in the world, more so than decrease it.

Social media’s reaction to killing of healthcare CEO

After the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the social media and online reaction to it has itself gotten attention. Most Americans say they have seen or heard something about the social media reactions that others have expressed online, and many have seen comments from others that appear to be positive reactions. 

Big majorities think it’s unacceptable when there’s seemingly positive reactions on social media, either about the killing or seemingly in support of the alleged killer. In explaining why those posts might be happening, though, most think it is driven by people who are angry about the health insurance system, not that those expressing such sentiments are condoning violence. 

This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,244 U.S. adults interviewed between December 18-20, 2024. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to gender, age, race, and education, based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as 2024 presidential vote. The margin of error is ±2.4 points.