According to a recent survey by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, an increasing number of young Americans are expressing concerns about the direction of the United States. The Fall 2025 Harvard Youth Poll, which was conducted in early November, reveals that 57 percent of individuals aged 18 to 29 believe the nation is on the wrong track. This marks a notable rise from the 51 percent who felt this way in both the spring of 2025 and the fall of 2024, just before the election.

Conversely, a mere 13 percent of these young adults currently feel that the country is moving in the right direction. This is a slight shift from the 15 percent reported in the spring poll and 11 percent in last year’s fall survey. Notably, 28 percent of those surveyed remain uncertain about the country’s trajectory.

The poll highlights a significant partisan divide in perceptions. Among the respondents, a striking 84 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of independents, and 27 percent of Republicans conveyed the sentiment that the nation is on the wrong path. While Democratic responses have remained relatively consistent since the spring of 2025, there is an observable increase in pessimism among Republicans and independents.

There is a clear partisan divide in responses, with 84 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of independents and 27 percent of Republicans saying the country is on the wrong track.

Democratic responses are mostly unchanged from the spring 2025 survey, but Republican and independent voters have grown more pessimistic about the direction of the country.

The share of Republican young adults who say the country is generally headed in the right direction dropped 10 percentage points from the spring, when 43 percent held this view. Those who say the country is on the wrong track, however, stayed roughly stable, from 26 percent in the spring to 27 percent in the latest survey.

Independent voters saw the inverse trend, with those saying the country is headed in the right direction staying roughly consistent — from 9 percent in the spring to 7 percent today — but those saying the country is off on the wrong track rising 10 points: from 51 percent in the spring to 61 percent today.

The survey comes amid a heightened concerns about affordability, a trend reflected in the Harvard survey. Only 30 percent of respondents say they think they will be financially better off than their parents.

Young adults, across party lines, cite inflation as their top economic concern, with 37 percent overall saying it’s the most important economic issue they would like government to address, including 48 percent of Republicans, 36 percent of Democrats and 34 percent of independents.

Health care comes in second as the most important issue for government to address, with 15 percent of young adults overall, 23 percent of Democrats, 14 percent of independents, and 11 percent of Republicans holding this view.

Health care is the second most important issue for Democrats and independents, but, for Republicans, taxes is the runner-up, with 13 percent choosing that issue.

The poll reached 2,040 18-to-29-year-olds and was conducted Nov. 3-7. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.94 percentage points.