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Whether the respondent's household is better off, worse off, or the same financially compared with a year ago.
Latest: 23% answered “Better” in NY Fed Consumer Expectations, 2025.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. ANES → mixed mode (2012).
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → web (2021).
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 (or one year’s average, for frequent series), evenly spaced rather than to scale in time; hover for exact shares.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. ANES → mixed mode (2012); 2. GSS → web (2021).
Groups differ from everyone by 7 points on average across all answers, in NY Fed Consumer Expectations.
Groups differ from everyone by 7 points on average across all answers, in NY Fed Consumer Expectations.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANES | Financially better or worse off than a year ago 1962-1998,2004:
We are interested in how people are getting along financially these days. Would you say that (1962,1966-1974: you [and your family]; 1976 and later : you [and your family living here]) are better off or worse off financially than you were a year ago.
2000-2002:
Would you say that you (and your family) (2000 FACE-TO-FACE ONLY: living here) are better off, worse off, or just about the same financially as you were a year ago? | identical | Better Now → Better; Same (2004: Volunteered) → Same; Worse Now → Worse |
| GSS | Change in financial situation over last few years B. During the last few years, has your financial situation been getting better, worse, or has it stayed the same? Caveat: GSS asks about 'the last few years', not one year. | similar | Better → Better; Worse → Worse; Stayed same → Same |
| NY Fed Consumer Expectations | Financially better or worse off than a year ago Do you think you (and any family living with you) are financially better or worse off these days than you were 12 months ago? Caveat: NY Fed panel of household heads; 5-point scale collapsed (much/somewhat better and worse). | similar | Much worse off → Worse; Somewhat worse off → Worse; About the same → Same; Somewhat better off → Better; Much better off → Better |
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.