As the book officially closes on 2025, a new YouGov survey has found faith and family amongst the top priorities for New Year’s resolutions. According to the survey, the majority of those surveyed (78%) described 2025 as “great,” “good,” or “ok,” for themselves personally. It was less optimistic for the country, with only 48% describing 2025 that way. Expectations for 2025 were somewhat tempered, with 75% expecting it to be great, good, or ok for them personally while 49% said the same for the country. 36% expected their life to be better in 2026 while 36% also expected it to be the same. Sixteen percent expected their life to be worse.

For the country, 52% of respondents believed 2026 would either be “one of the best years in American history” or “about average.” For their children, 23% believed the US will be better when their children grow up while 19% predicted it would be “about the same.” Thirty-seven percent stated they thought it would be worse. Democrats expected 2026 to be terrible for the country at higher rate than Republicans (35% vs 6%) and Independents (35% vs 26%). Women also expected 2026 to be worse than men (27% vs 18%).

Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they either love or like making resolutions while 44% said they dislike or hate them. Only 31% of respondents planned to make New Year’s resolutions for 2026, while 51% said they won’t. Eight percent stated they believed making New Year’s resolutions makes the following year “much better” while 24% stated they believed it made it “a little better” and 42% stated it made it “no different.” Honing in on the particular New Year’s resolutions, the majority of the top ten focused on physical health in some way, with 25% stating their top goal was “exercising more.” Other health goals included “eating healthier,” “improving physical health,” and “losing weight.” Last year, according to YouGov, “the most popular resolution was saving more money, with 26 percent who were resolving to do this,” YouGov said in an analysis, adding that “22 percent said they were resolving to exercise more last year.” Rounding out the top ten at 15% were “spending more time with family” and “praying more.” The data comes from 1,104 adult US citizens from December 9-11. Broken down, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to cite “praying more” as a resolution (19% vs 15%).