Fox News Poll: Voters give 2018 mixed reviews, feel hopeful for future

(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

With two weeks left until the curtain closes on 2018, the latest Fox News poll finds that a majority of voters thinks it was a good year for them, but give mixed reviews for the country.

In addition, hopefulness is up.  Despite the bickering and the gridlock, the number saying they feel hopeful about the direction of the country is up 10 points since last year: 51 percent vs. 41 percent in 2017.  And, although asked in irregular intervals, the last time a majority felt this way was 6 years ago, as 57 percent were optimistic in August 2012.

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Forty-four percent are “not so hopeful” about the country’s direction.

Fifty-three percent of registered voters say the past year has been a positive one for them.  That matches the number who felt good about 2016 -- and just 4 percentage points short of the record high (57 percent in December 2014).

Twenty-eight percent say this year wasn’t so great for them and 19 percent feel “mixed” or are unsure.

Was it a good year for the country as a whole, though?  Voters are less certain: 40 percent say yes, while 43 percent disagree.

Political and gender divisions 

Gender and partisan divides are alive and well in the good year vs. bad year decision and outlook for the future.

Seven-in-10 self-identified Democrats think it was a bad year for the country (70 percent) and are pessimistic about its direction (69 percent).  The opposite is true for Republicans: 72 percent think the country had a good year and 80 percent are hopeful for what is to come.

More men than women think the U.S. had a decent year by 13 points (47 vs. 34 percent) and are hopeful for its future by 15 (59 vs. 44 percent).

A similar gap plays out for personal year-end reviews.  Sixty-one percent of men are positive about how their year went vs. 46 percent of women.  In 2016, men and women were equally likely to say their year was good (53 percent).

Republicans (75 percent) are 40 points more likely than Democrats (35 percent) to give 2018 a thumbs-up for them and their families.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,006 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from December 9-11, 2018.  The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.