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Self-assessed change in the household's financial situation compared with 12 months earlier, collapsed from five-point better-to-worse scales in SHED (2014-2025) and the 2022 GSS.
AI-matched An AI model grouped these questions and mapped their answers onto shared categories, and a second AI review checked and corrected the grouping and mapping. No person has checked it: compare the question wordings and the answer mapping below before reading the lines against each other.
Latest: 28% answered “Worse off” in Fed SHED, 2025.
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each column is one survey wave, evenly spaced rather than to scale in time; hover for exact shares.
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each point is one survey wave at the middle of its field period. Lines from different surveys are never spliced together.
Groups differ from everyone by 6 points on average across all answers, in Fed SHED.
Groups differ from everyone by 5 points on average across all answers, in Fed SHED.
Subgroup charts are picked automatically. Of every breakdown in the data (party, ideology, age, sex, race, education, income, region, religion, and community type), these two put their groups furthest from everyone’s answers: the gap is averaged across all answer categories and waves, with each group weighted by its share of respondents. Party and ideology count as one choice, so the second chart shows a different kind of split. Groups with an effective sample under 50 in a wave are left out of that wave, and changes run from each group’s first wave to its last.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSS | Household finances compared with a year ago Compared to 12 months ago, how do you think the financial situation of your household has changed? Would you say the current situation is... Caveat: Asks about household situation; scale order reversed (better first); five points collapsed to three | equivalent | Much better → Better off; Somewhat better → Better off; About the same → About the same; Somewhat worse → Worse off; Much worse → Worse off |
| Fed SHED | Financially better or worse off than a year ago Compared to 12 months ago, would you say that you (and your family) are better off, the same, or worse off financially? | identical | Much worse off → Worse off; Somewhat worse off → Worse off; About the same → About the same; Somewhat better off → Better off; Much better off → Better off |