America’s hopelessness crisis may have less to do with the economy and more to do with Gen Z’s mental health, new survey shows

However, recent surveys suggest that many Americans are losing faith in the future of the nation. A 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center found at least two-thirds of Americans believe that by 2050, America will become economically weaker, less important in the world, and more politically divided. A 2023 Wall Street Journal-NORC survey found that nearly 80% of Americans do not expect life for their children’s generation to be better than it has been for their own generation.

Are we losing hope?

To find out, our team at the Archbridge Institute’s Human Flourishing Lab, in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago, surveyed a nationally representative sample of just over 2,000 Americans about their hopefulness for the future. We were particularly interested in distinguishing between personal hope and hope at the broader national or global levels. Our results reveal that this distinction is an important one.

The good news is that most Americans continue to have hope in their personal lives: 82% are hopeful for their own future, 85% are hopeful for the future of their family, and 74% are hopeful for the future of their local community. There is some variation across demographic groups, but for the most part, these high levels of hope characterize Americans across diverse gender, age, racial, ethnic, income, and political groups.

Unfortunately, hope drops considerably when we extend it beyond the local environment. Only 56% of Americans are hopeful for the future of the U.S., a particularly distressing trend during an election year. Moreover, only 44% of Americans believe that humans will make significant progress on major societal and global challenges in the coming decades…