How Americans' optimism about their future has changed, according to new
polling
[February 10, 2026]
By LINLEY SANDERS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans’ hope for their future has fallen to a new
low, according to new polling.
In 2025, only about 59% of Americans gave high ratings when asked to
evaluate how good their life will be in about five years, the lowest
annual measure since Gallup began asking this question almost 20 years
ago.
It's a warning about the depth of the gloom that has fallen over the
country over the past few years. In the data, Gallup’s “current” and
“future” lines have tended to move together over time — when Americans
are feeling good about the present, they tend to feel optimistic about
the future. But the most recent measures show that while current life
satisfaction has declined over the last decade, future optimism has
dropped even more.
The finding comes from a longstanding Gallup question that asks
Americans to rate their current and future lives on a scale from 0 to
10. Those who give themselves an 8 or higher on the question about the
future are categorized as optimists.
“While current life is eroding, it’s that optimism for the future that
has eroded almost twice as much over the course of about that last 10
years or so,” said Dan Witters, the research director of the Gallup
National Health and Well-Being Index.
Gallup assesses people who rate their current life at a 7 or higher and
their anticipated future at an 8 or higher as “thriving.” Fewer than
half of Americans, about 48%, are now in that category.
Democrats and Hispanic Americans, in particular, were in a darker mood
last year. But even with President Donald Trump back in the White House
and his party in control of both houses of Congress, Republicans aren’t
feeling nearly as good about the future as they were in the last year of
Trump’s first term.
Democrats’ optimism fell significantly
Americans’ attitudes toward the future tend to shift when a new
political party enters the White House — generally, the party in power
grows more optimistic, while the party without control is more down. For
instance, Democrats became more positive about the future after Joe
Biden won the presidency, while Republicans’ outlook soured.
Witters notes that these changes typically happen “by roughly the same
amount, same level of magnitude, so they cancel each other out.”
That didn’t happen in 2025.
Toward the end of Biden’s term and the start of Trump’s second term,
Democrats’ optimism fell from 65% to 57%. Republicans grew more hopeful,
but not enough to offset Democrats’ drop.
“The regime change in the White House almost certainly was a big driving
factor in what’s happened,” Witters said. “And a lot of that was just
because the people who identified as Democrats really took it in the
chops.”
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President Donald Trump smiles after signing a spending bill that
ends a partial shutdown of the federal government in the Oval Office
of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon)
But Republicans are still quite a bit gloomier about the future than
they were in the last year of Trump's first term. A January AP-NORC
poll found that while the vast majority of Republicans are still
behind the president, his work on the economy hasn’t lived up to
many people’s expectations.
Hispanic adults grew more pessimistic
Hispanic adults’ optimism for the near future also declined during
Trump’s first year in office, dropping from 69% to 63%.
That decrease was sharper than among white and Black Americans,
something that Witters said could be tied to overall cost concerns,
health care worries or alarm about Trump’s recent immigration
policies.
Last year, a survey by the American Communities Project found that
people living in heavily Hispanic areas were feeling less hopeful
about their future than in 2024. Trump’s favorability fell among
Hispanics over the course of 2025, according to AP-NORC polling,
which also found that Hispanic adults reported higher levels of
economic stress than other groups.
A Pew Research Center poll conducted in October found that the
administration’s tough immigration enforcement is highly visible in
Hispanic communities. About 6 in 10 Latinos said they had seen or
heard of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids or arrests in
their community in the past six months.
“(Deportations are) something that everybody can see and look at
with their own eyes,” Witters added. “But if you’re Hispanic, I
think it’s fair to think that that might hit a little closer to
home.”
___
This data is a part of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being
Index. The 2025 results are based on data collected over four
quarterly measurement periods, totaling 22,125 interviews with U.S.
adults who are part of the probability-based Gallup Panel.
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