After a Hard Year, the World Is Hopeful for Better in 2024

Despite ongoing conflicts, threats from AI and the imminent climate catastrophe, global optimism is seeing an uptick for 2024. According to the latest data from Ipsos, a global average of 70 percent of respondents say they feel optimistic that their 2024 will be better than 2023. This is 15 percentage points up from last year, which was the lowest score on record since Ipsos started running the survey.

Of course, a global average hides the differences between countries. For instance, when looking at an international breakdown, Indonesia has a high share of people feeling positive about their coming year. Out of the 34 countries polled, it comes out on top, with 91 percent of respondents feeling more optimistic about 2024. This has risen 11 percentage points from last year when 80 percent of respondents said they felt optimistic looking ahead.

At the more cynical end of the spectrum stand France and Japan, with only 46 percent and 39 percent of their respondents, respectively, feeling more positive about next year. Argentina, with its crippling inflation, had a record 88 percent of people saying that 2023 was a bad year for their country. Yet, hope still won out, with 69 percent of Argentinians saying that 2024 will be better.

As the following chart shows, optimism has improved in the United Kingdom, up 11 percentage points from last year, which is one of the greatest improvements across all of the countries polled. This comes off the back of a year considered to be particularly bad for the country by 83 percent of Brits in 2023.