Around the world, views of the economy are related to several factors. Public opinion responds to economic shocks, but we also see that some people’s views change significantly following political shifts – namely, after elections.
This analysis takes a closer look at economic attitudes around the world, primarily based on surveys of 25 countries conducted this spring and surveys of 36 countries conducted last spring. This year’s surveys were fielded before U.S. President Donald Trump announced widespread tariffs on trading partners in April.
How views of the economy relate to support for the party in power
In nearly all of the countries we surveyed this year, people who support the governing party – that is, the party or parties in power at the time the survey was fielded in spring 2025 – are more likely than people who do not support the governing party to say their national economy is good.
(Read about how we categorized governing parties in this Appendix.)
Take Greece: 71% of Greek adults who support the governing New Democracy party say the current economic situation in their country is good, compared with just 9% of those who do not support New Democracy. The gap between governing party supporters and nonsupporters is also especially large in Hungary, Argentina and Poland.
How views of the economy change after elections
Partisans’ ratings of the economy often change after an incumbent party is defeated in an election. This section focuses on countries that had an election resulting in a change of power between two of our surveys.
United States: Following elections in 2024, the Republican Party now controls the U.S. House of Representatives, Senate and presidency, flipping the latter two from Democratic control. In a spring 2024 survey, 17% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents viewed the economy positively. This spring, after the Trump administration’s return to power, 50% of Republicans had a positive view of the economy. Meanwhile, the share of Democrats and Democratic leaners viewing the economy positively decreased from 53% in spring 2024 to 19% this spring.
Related: Most Americans continue to rate the U.S. economy negatively as partisan gap widens
United Kingdom: The Labour Party won a majority in British Parliament in 2024 and now holds the largest majority since 1997. Among Labour supporters, positive ratings of the economy doubled between spring 2024 and spring 2025. They remained relatively steady among Conservative Party supporters, with around one-in-four viewing the economy positively in both surveys.
Related: Global Elections in 2024: What We Learned in a Year of Political Disruption
Italy: The 2022 Italian general election resulted in a center-right coalition led by Brothers of Italy winning a parliamentary majority. The share of Brothers of Italy supporters with a positive view of the national economy increased from 11% in 2022 to 30% in 2023. Among supporters of the Five Star Movement and the Democratic Party – both part of the ousted coalition – views did not change significantly between 2022 and 2023, with around one-in-four supporters of each party viewing the economy positively in both surveys.
Australia: The Liberal-National coalition lost 19 seats and its majority in the Australian House of Representatives in the 2022 federal elections. Before those elections, 65% of Australians who supported one of the coalition parties had a positive view of the economy. But by 2023, that figure had slipped to 41%. Among supporters of the Australian Labor Party – which achieved a majority in 2022 – the share with a positive view of the economy was unchanged between 2022 and 2023, holding at 42%.
Mexico: In 2018, 25% of Morena supporters viewed Mexico’s economy positively. In 2019 – after Morena presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador won a landslide victory the previous summer – 54% of supporters rated the economy positively. Among those who supported the ousted Institutional Revolutionary Party, the share viewing the economy as good remained roughly the same between 2018 and 2019.
France: In 2017, 21% of En Marche supporters viewed the national economy positively. This share more than tripled to 69% in 2018, following the 2017 election of En Marche presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron. Positive ratings of the economy also increased slightly among those supporting the Socialist Party of Macron’s predecessor, François Hollande, but by a much smaller margin.
How views of the economy relate to measures of economic performance
Views of the national economy are only somewhat related to many available objective measures of economic performance, consistent with what we found in a 2017 analysis.
In the countries we surveyed in 2025, several of these measures – including gross domestic product growth, inflation, unemployment and income inequality – are not closely related to views of the current economic situation.
However, 2024 GDP growth is somewhat correlated with views of a country’s long-term economic future (as opposed to its current economic situation).
Across the 36 countries we surveyed in 2024, there is a positive correlation between GDP growth and views of whether children will be better off financially than their parents. In countries with higher economic growth that year, people were more likely to say that children will be better off.
Related: Economic Inequality Seen as Major Challenge Around the World
Consider India, where GDP grew the most of any country we surveyed. Three-in-four Indian adults said in 2024 that children in their country would be better off financially than their parents when they grow up. Japan, on the other hand, saw much less GDP growth, and just 16% of Japanese adults said children would be better off financially than their parents.
Outlooks in middle- and high-income countries
Middle-income countries tended to have more GDP growth in 2024 than high-income countries, and people in those countries were also more likely than their counterparts in high-income nations to be optimistic that children there would be better off financially than their parents.
In the 18 middle-income countries we surveyed, GDP grew by a median of 3.4% in 2024, and a median of 44% of adults said children would be better off financially than their parents. In the 18 high-income countries we surveyed, GDP grew by a median of 1.3%, and a median of 26% of adults said children would grow up to be better off.
How views of the economy shift after major economic changes
We also see public opinion respond after economic shocks.
In a global survey we fielded following the 2008 financial crisis, ratings of the economy plummeted among those on the ideological left and right alike in Germany, Spain and the UK. Similarly, in a survey conducted shortly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw views of the economy grow significantly more negative in many countries, regardless of ideological leanings.
Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.