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A little more than half of Americans fear what 2022 has in store for the country, and the 50 percent predict the new year will be bad for the economy amid rising inflation and a shortage of supply chain, according to a new survey published on the last day of 2021.
Along with the 51 percent who fear what the 2022 for the United States, the 54% fear what will come for the world next year, shows Axios / Momentive survey .
Americans showed less fear when asked what they thought the 2022 would bring them personally, and the 68 percent said they had more hope for a good year and only the 30% said they were more afraid.
However, overall, the survey shows that Americans are a slightly less optimistic for 2022 than for 2021.
Last year, the 25 percent said they were afraid of what the 2021 had in store for them, and the 73 percent said they were hopeful.
Laura Wronski, Senior Manager Research scientist at Momentive, told Axios that “the end of last year was a particularly hopeful time” due to a change in the presidency, as well as the promise of COVID vaccines – 19.
“I think after this year we realized that it will not magically improve, that we will have to live with COVID for a while,” he said.
As the United States grapples with an increase in coronavirus cases due to the varianthighly contagious Omicron, the 35% of Americans say they would like to hear less about COVID – 19 in 2022.
Meanwhile, the 61 percent said they were more hopeful than fearful about the progress of the pandemic in 2022, versus 76 percent who said the same in 2021.
Americans were split on the outlook for the economy on 2022: the 50 percent said it would be a bad year and the 48 percent said it would be a good year.
However, plus the 16% of respondents predicted that the economy would have a “very bad year”, versus 8% of those who they predicted it would be a “very good year.”
The economy and employment also topped the list of the most important problems facing the country, according to respondents, and the 31 percent said the economy was what mattered most to them.
Second on the list, there was democracy, and the 17 percent considered it the most important issue.
Completing the list of the top five problems is health care (16 percent), education (8 percent) and the environment (8 percent) .
Only 7 percent of respondents mentioned immigration as the most important issue, while terrorism and foreign policy received the 2nd percent each in the survey.
Americans were also pessimistic s about President Biden’s future, and the 53 percent said that 2022 would be a bad year for him (including the 35 percent who predicted a “very bad year”), and the 44 by percent predicted a good year for Biden, with only the 11 percent forecasting the “very good year.”
As Americans enter 2022 with fear, the survey suggests that they will be relieved that 2021 is over.
The 43 % of respondents described it as “exhausting” and “worrisome”, the 31% called it “chaotic”, the 21% said it was “hectic”, while the 18% chose “infernal” as the word that best summarized their 2021.
Only the 14 percent said that 2021 was “excellent” for them and 8 percent said it was “incredible.”
In the exercise they surveyed 2, to the 16 of December and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.