In the highest reading since the fall of 2022 upwards of 59% of respondents to a national poll indicate that they have become more negative regarding the state of the U.S. economy.
The survey, conducted by the polling firm Economist/YouGov, additionally reveals that the growing pessimism is of recent vintage: as recently as the first week of March, the negative take was at 53%.
“Only seven Economist YouGov polls have recorded larger one-week jumps in the share of Americans saying the economy is getting worse,” notes a narrative accompanying the latest survey’s figures.
Those previous one-week jumps were recorded entirely during the spring of 2020 due to the Covid 19 pandemic and national economic shutdown.
At the same time, the number of people in the most recent Economist YouGov who said they think the economy is getting better is now at 16%, a drop from the 20% recorded in early March.
The survey additionally showed a partisan divide with 86% of identifying Democrats saying they thought the economy was worsening compared to only 24% of Republicans who felt the same. Exactly 66% of those calling themselves independent also expressed pessimistic views of the economy.
Overall, combining all party responses, 30% said they thought the economy would be worse by the spring of 2027, compared with 23% indicating that the economy will likely be better.
The number of respondents feeling positive about the future of the economy stood at 41% in November of 2024, just two weeks after Donald Trump was elected to a second term in the White House.
Those thinking that the economy would only worsen reached a low of 12% in the fall of 2024, before jumping to 34% in March of 2025. The “worse off” category was subsequently on a consistent decline throughout most of last year, dropping to 22% in December.
On the often-used barometer of views on gas prices, exactly 55% said those prices are currently significantly on the upside in their area, while 32% said they were only rising a little.
March 23, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Image courtesy of Unsplash
