In a survey that bodes ill for the Democrats and Joe Biden's reelection campaign, by a 30-point margin, more Americans say their personal finances have gotten worse than better, and less than a third of them expect their situation to improve in the months ahead.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 47% of American Adults say their personal financial situation has gotten worse in the past six months – up from 41% in December – while just 17% say their finances have gotten better. Thirty-three percent (33%) say their financial situation has stayed about the same.
Twenty-seven percent (27%) expect their personal financial situation to get better in the next six months – slightly up from 25% in December – while 33% expect it to get worse and 36% think their financial situation will stay about the same.
The survey of 1,232 American Adults was conducted June 10-12, 2024 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.
Among those who say their finances have gotten worse in the past six months, just 18% expect it to get better in the next six months, while 59% expect their financial situation to get even worse.
While there is almost no "gender gap" in terms of how things have gone in the past six months – 47% of men and 48% of women say their personal financial situation has worsened – more men (36%) than women (30%) expect it to keep getting worse in the next six months.
Forty-six percent (46%) of whites, 38% of blacks, 61% of Hispanics and 47% of other minorities say their personal financial situation has gotten worse in the past six months. Blacks are most likely to expect improvement in their financial situation over the next six months.
Voters 65 and older are less likely to say their personal financial situation has gotten worse in the past six months, and most likely to expect it to stay about the same over the next six months.
Americans with annual incomes over $100,000 are much more likely to say their financial situation has improved in the past six months, compared to those with lower incomes.
Entrepreneurs (51%) and private sector workers (47%) are more likely than government employees (44%) or retirees (43%) to say their personal financial situation has gotten worse in the past six months.
As things stand now if Republicans are smart (an unlikely prospect) they will keep banging away on one question: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?
