Overall, Americans continue to rate economic conditions negatively, with just 23% calling them excellent or good. And their expectations for the economy a year from now have grown more pessimistic since February.
Prices of food and consumer goods, housing, and energy remain top economic concerns. These continue to rank higher on the public’s list of economic concerns than the availability of jobs or the state of the stock market.
Note: This survey was conducted after Trump’s April 2 announcement of sweeping new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners, which triggered several days of volatility in U.S. and global stock markets. The survey was in the field on April 9, when Trump paused tariffs on most countries but levied higher rates on China. Opinions about the economy and economic concerns were largely unchanged throughout the April 7-13 field period.
Americans gloomy about current economic conditions; a growing share says the economy will be worse a year from now
Just 23% of Americans rate national economic conditions as excellent or good, while 42% say they are only fair and 34% rate the economy as poor.
The share who rate the economy positively is similar to the share who did so in February (24%). Positive evaluations of economic conditions have been below 30% for the past four years.
Partisans’ views of the economy have changed with Trump in office
Today, 36% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents rate the economy as excellent or good, compared with 11% of Democrats and Democratic leaners.
In February, these views were roughly reversed, with 30% of Democrats and 18% of Republicans rating the economy positively.
Republicans’ ratings of the economy today are roughly on par with where they were in March 2017, early in Trump’s first term, when 37% rated the economy positively. At that time, Americans’ overall views of the economy were considerably more positive than they are today (41% then vs. 23% now) and 44% of Democrats had a positive view.
While overall economic views have remained relatively steady since February, the public’s expectations for the economy a year from now have soured somewhat.
45% of Americans say they expect economic conditions to be worse a year from now, up from 37% in February.
Another 36% of the public expect the economy will be better in a year, while 19% say it will be about the same as today.
Republicans remain more optimistic than Democrats about the economy’s future. But since February, positive expectations have declined among both parties:
Among Republicans
- 65% expect the economy to be better a year from now, down from 73% in February.
- 15% expect the economy will be worse a year from now, up from 9% in February.
Among Democrats
- 74% say the economy will be worse a year from now, up 10 percentage points since February.
- 17% expect the economy to be about the same as it is now, and only 8% think the economy will be better a year from now.
Prices of housing, food and consumer goods remain the public’s top economic concerns
Prices for food and consumer goods, housing, and energy continue to be Americans’ leading economic concerns. However, the shares saying they are very concerned about these have declined since last year, mostly driven by changes among Republicans.
Two-thirds of Americans are very concerned about the price of food and consumer goods. In September, 74% said they were very concerned about these prices.
There also have been declines in the shares citing housing costs and the price of gasoline and energy as major economic concerns. Currently, 61% say they are very concerned about housing prices, down from 69% in September. Fewer than half of adults (46%) say they are very concerned about the price of gasoline and energy, down somewhat since January 2024 (51%).
The share of adults who are very concerned about the availability of jobs is essentially unchanged over this period (41% today vs. 40% in September).
Concerns about the state of the stock market are higher than they were last year, though they still rank lower than other items. Today, 36% of Americans say they are very concerned about how the stock market is doing, up 12 points from September.
Republicans’ concerns about several economic factors have decreased over this period, while Democrats’ concerns have increased.
Price of food and consumer goods
- 57% of Republicans are very concerned about food and consumer prices, down from 85% in September.
- By contrast, 78% of Democrats are very concerned about these prices, compared with 64% in September.
Housing costs
- Today, about half of Republicans (51%) say they are very concerned about the cost of housing, down sharply from 72% in September.
- Democrats’ concerns about housing costs have increased somewhat since September (71% today vs. 66% then).
Stock market
- The share of Democrats who are very concerned about how the stock market is doing has nearly tripled since September, from 17% to 49%.
- There has been far less change among Republicans. Currently, 24% are very concerned about the stock market, down from 31% in September.
There are similar patterns in concerns about the price of gasoline and energy and concerns about the job market.
