Americans enter 2023 with a mostly gloomy outlook, according to the latest Gallup Poll, which asks about economic, political, societal, and international affairs.
Eight in 10 U.S. adults in the Gallup survey say 2023 will be a year of economic difficulty with higher rather than lower taxes and a growing rather than shrinking budget deficit.
More than 6 in 10 say prices will rise at a high rate, and the stock market will fall, both of which happened in 2022. In addition, just over half of Americans predict that unemployment will increase in 2023. Annual inflation is currently 7.1%, and the latest unemployment rate was 3.7%.
After the midterm elections in November, Democrats maintained narrow control in the Senate, but Republicans gained a slim majority in the House of Representatives, which means in 2023 they can chair committees and investigate things like the origins of COVID-19 and Hunter Biden's business dealings.
With divided government, 90% of Americans expect 2023 will be a year of political conflict in the U.S., and 72% say the crime rate will rise, while 56% predict there will be many strikes by labor unions.
Overseas, Russia, China, and Iran continue to be major problems. In the survey, 85% of U.S. adults predict the year ahead will be fraught with international discord rather than peaceful solutions. And while 64% say U.S. power in the world will decline, 73% say China's will increase.
Democrats in the survey are more likely than Republicans to offer positive predictions when it comes to the economy, crime, and foreign affairs. Gallup points out that this is a typical phenomenon in which Americas who identify with the sitting president's party are more positive in general in their outlook for the year ahead.
But overall, Americans are greeting 2023 with great skepticism and little expectation that the economic struggles that closed out 2022 will abate, Gallup concluded.
These findings are from a Dec. 5-19 nationally representative web survey of U.S. adults who are members of Gallup's probability-based panel.
The Gallup Panel has approximately 100,000 members, all of whom can be reached via phone. About 80,000 members can be reached by email to complete a Web survey.
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