Many Americans are still worried about facing high prices this holiday season, though the concern seems less pronounced than it was during former President Joe Biden’s time in office, as shown by a recent AP-NORC poll released on Friday.
Currently, 87% of American adults feel they are paying more for groceries than usual, a decrease from 95% who felt this way in December 2022. The same poll indicates that 69% believe electricity prices are higher than they typically pay, down from 74% in December 2022. Additionally, 63% of respondents think they are spending more on holiday gifts compared to 69% last year.
When it comes to the economy, around two-thirds of U.S. adults rate it as “poor,” a figure that hasn’t changed since December 2024, before Donald Trump began his second term. The poll revealed a partisan divide, with 56% of Republicans and 16% of Democrats seeing the economy as “good” in December 2025, an increase from the previous year when Biden was president, where only 51% of Democrats and 16% of Republicans shared that view.
About 49% of those surveyed feel they’re currently spending more on gas than normal, which is a decline from 83% in December 2022.
Responses from Biden’s office regarding the poll were not immediately available.
Furthermore, nearly 40% of Americans anticipate the economy will worsen in 2026, while around 30% think conditions will remain relatively stable. Inflation hit record highs during Biden’s presidency, peaking at 9.1% in July 2022, and gas prices also rose significantly during that time.
However, Biden has defended his economic policies since leaving office, emphasizing in a May interview that his administration contributed to economic growth and an uptick in the stock market. Yet, a Gallup survey from November noted that Americans’ economic confidence had fallen to a 17-month low.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance are actively promoting their administration’s economic strategies as they head into the 2026 midterms. Vance stated, through a recent post, that Biden’s economic policies had made it difficult for families to live comfortably in the U.S.
In contrast, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of misleading the public about the real state of the economy.
The AP-NORC poll surveyed 1,146 U.S. adults from December 4 to 8, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
