Americans Anticipate Economic & Environmental Trouble

Americans aren’t feeling great about the economy and the environment in the coming year, according to the latest poll by Ipsos. Out of approximately 1,000 surveyed U.S. adults, more than three quarters said that prices in their country will increase faster than people’s wages, while around two thirds said unemployment will be higher than in 2022. At the same time, 65 percent of respondents think it’s likely that a natural disaster will hit a city in the United States in the coming year, marking a slight uptick of 2 percent since the end of 2021. This last concern is more widespread in the U.S. than most of the other 31 countries surveyed by Ipsos on the topic, with only a higher share of respondents saying it was likely a natural disaster will occur in their countries in Indonesia (78 percent) and Turkey (66 percent).

When it comes to the climate, roughly half of U.S. respondents (52 percent) believe that the coming year will bring some of the hottest weather on record, with a third (36 percent) even saying that parts of the country will become unlivable due to an extreme weather event. This year alone, the world has seen multiple records broken in terms of peak temperatures, with widespread droughts, as well as devastating wildfires. At the same time, most respondents were doubtful of whether there will be a breakthrough in technology developed which will halt climate change next year, with only 23 percent agreeing it was likely, falling short of the slightly more optimistic global average of 32 percent.

In spite of all this however, respondents have not all lost hope. Around two thirds of U.S. adults still said that they thought next year would be better than 2022.