Americans’ confidence in finances returns to 2019 level: Gallup

Americans’ confidence in their finances has rebounded after dropping in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new poll.

The survey, published Thursday by Gallup, found that 57 percent of Americans now describe their financial situation as excellent or good, up from 49 percent who said the same a year ago.

Fifty-two percent of survey respondents also said that their current financial situation is getting better. That percentage dropped to 35 percent in April 2020 from the 57 percent recorded in 2019.

Twenty-five percent of survey respondents said they felt negative about their finances, either describing their situation as only fair or poor and as staying the same or getting worse, according to Gallup.

Pollsters noted that confidence in finances was tied to household income in the survey. Seventy-four percent of respondents with a household income of $100,000 or more rated their current and future personal finances positively, compared with 25 percent of those with a household income of less than $40,000.

Results also varied by age, with 36 percent of survey respondents ages 18 to 34 rating their current and future personal finances positively, and 50 percent of those both 35 to 54 and older than 55 saying the same.

Fifty-five percent of Democrats said their current and future personal finances were positive, compared to 37 percent of Republican respondents who agreed. 

President Biden earlier this month touted a strong March jobs report that showed a gain of 916,000 jobs last month. However, he called on lawmakers to pass his American Rescue plan, a massive investment in the economy funded by corporate tax increases.

The new survey was conducted April 1 through April 21 with a sample of 961 adults across the U.S. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.