NEW YORK — Think 2020 was bad? Half of Americans are calling 2021 the “worst year of their lives so far.”
The survey of 1,000 adults — conducted by OnePoll on Dec. 13 — aimed to get an “end of year reflection” on many subjects and found that 53 percent feel 2021 has been a very unpleasant year for them. However, seven in 10 still have high hopes that 2022 will be an improvement over the previous year.
Millennials (ages 25 to 40) are the most dismissive of 2021, with 66 percent saying it was a tough year. Sixty-two percent of Gen Zers (ages 18 to 24) and 43 percent of Gen Xers (ages 41 to 56) also shared that 2021 wasn’t their best year. Meanwhile, 56 percent of boomers (ages 57+) disagreed entirely.
When asked about their overall outlook on life, nearly eight in 10 respondents (78 percent) describe themselves as optimists. Another 61 percent also identified themselves as idealists, who “envision things as they could be,” while 19 percent prefer to be realists, who “see things as they are.”
www.studyfinds.org/2021-worst-year-ever/