Ahead of 2023, public expectations of the future around the world are unusually diverse and the world looks much less united than it did in previous years. Pessimism prevails, economic prosperity seems to be disappearing, and fears of the use of nuclear weapons are at an unprecedented level. Although personal happiness traditionally prevails, as a whole in the world it is lower than before.

These are some of the findings in the survey of the international association “Gallup International” for the end of the year that has traditionally been carried out for the last decades.

In Macedonia, 80 percent of the respondents expect 2023 to be worse or the same as the previous year. More than half (57 percent) expect a year of economic difficulties, but on a personal level, almost half declared that they feel happy.

The new 2023 arrives with rather pessimistic expectations. Less than a third (31 percent) of respondents believe that 2023 will be better than 2022. The opposite opinion is shared by 34 percent, and 27 percent believe that 2023 will be the same as the previous one. The results show more pessimism compared to previous years and the picture is now similar to the attitudes of late 2008, which was the most pessimistic year in the world in the new century.

As the results indicate, the most optimistic about the future are people in Nigeria, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, the Philippines and India. At the end of this year, the top 5 pessimistic countries are European – Poland, the Czech Republic, Serbia, France and Italy. Traditionally Russia is quite on the pessimistic side. This year, 22% of respondents said they are optimistic about the future, 36% are still pessimistic that 2023 will be better than 2022 and 20% are neutral in their expectations, the rest do not know.

In the US, on the other hand, there has been a dramatic shift toward pessimism in the last few years. Optimists today for a better new year are still more than pessimists – 37% expect 2023 to be better than 2022, and 27% are ready for a worse year. Almost a third of respondents are neutral and 6% cannot form an opinion. Last year, optimists in the USA were 40%, and pessimists – 19%. In 2020, 59% of Americans expected a better year, and 16% were pessimistic.

In Macedonia, when asked “As far as you are concerned, do you think that 2023 will be better, worse, or the same as 2022?”, 14% of the surveyed citizens said that it will be better, 44% said that it will be worse, 36% that it will be the same as 2022, and 6% did not know/had no answer.

Expectations for the economy, it said, also show a steady rise in concerns. Now 21% of people expect economic prosperity for their country in the coming year, almost half (48%) are prepared for economic hardship and a quarter think 2023 will be the same as 2022. The others cannot judge.

These views continue a negative trend for hopes of economic prosperity that started a few years ago – 2016 saw a tipping point and 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic appeared to be the year with the worst expectations since the 2008 crisis. But now attitudes look very similar or even worse than at the end of 2020. However, the world is not as negative regarding economic expectations as it was in 2008 with its crisis, according to the survey.