What We Thought the Future Would Be (How did that work out?)

By H. Stuart Elway
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October 31, 2025

Twenty years ago (Nov. 2005), The Elway Poll collaborated with Glen Hiemstra of futurist.com to ask Washingtonians to look ahead to the year 2025. Now here we are. How is that future working out?

Most of our 405 respondents (63%) declared themselves to be optimistic about world of 2025. However, opinions about specific aspects of that future suggested that optimism was largely aspirational. Americans generally want to be optimistic, so declaring oneself optimistic may have been an expression of hope more than expectation.

Top worries for the future volunteered by respondents had to do with the environment (21%), war/terrorism (19%), the economy (15%), and social issues like crime and poverty (12%). Things people imagined would be better in 2025 included health and medical advances (19%), “technology” (19%), the economy (12%) and transportation (12%).

The outlook for the globe and America’s place in it was less than rosy. Out of every 10 respondents asked to imagine the world in 2025: 5 thought it unlikely that the US would still be the world’s largest economy (it is); 6 thought it unlikely that the US would be the world’s only military superpower (it is); 6 thought it unlikely that the war on terrorism would be won (we don’t call it that anymore); 6 thought the global environment would be in worse condition (it is); and 7 in 10 thought that the proportion of the world’s population living in poverty would be the same or higher by 2025 than it was in 2005 (it is lower – by about half).

-more-

https://www.postalley.org/2025/10/31/what-we-thought-the-future-would-be-how-did-that-work-out/