""If you look at the optimism metric for future life, that really came down a lot from 2021 to 2023 and that corresponds really closely with the worst of the inflation crisis," Dan Witters, research director of the Gallup national health and well-being index, told Fortune. "The economic pressures of being able to afford things like food and fuel and gas and healthcare-that really can have a deleterious effect.""
""A long-running Gallup poll found the percentage of U.S. adults who anticipate a high-quality life within the next five years slumped to 59.2%, its lowest share since the organization began asking this question nearly two decades ago. The poll-based on data collected over four quarterly measurements in 2025 among 22,125 U.S. adults-revealed a notable decline in sentiment, measuring a 3.5-percentage-point drop off from 2024.""
""Moreover, the study found the amount of Americans who rate both their current and future lives high enough to be characterized as "thriving" dropped to 48%, down more than 11 points from a high in June 2021, and the sixth-lowest rating out of all 176 measurements taken since 2008. The last time the rating dropped below its current level was in April 2020, the month after the COVID pandemic first hit the U.S.""
A long-running Gallup poll found the percentage of U.S. adults who anticipate a high-quality life within the next five years slumped to 59.2%, the lowest since the question began nearly two decades ago. Data collected across four quarterly measurements in 2025 among 22,125 U.S. adults showed a 3.5-percentage-point drop from 2024. The share of Americans who rate both their current and future lives as 'thriving' fell to 48%, more than 11 points below a June 2021 high and marking the sixth-lowest reading since 2008. Respondents cited inflation, affordability pressures, job confidence declines, domestic conflict, and political upheaval as contributing factors.
Read at Fortune
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