Gallup and USA Today called up 1,055 Americans on those landlines and asked them for their best predictions about a year in the distant future: 2025. Most people in 1998 correctly doubted that space travel would be common for ordinary Americans or that alien life forms would have made contact. About two-thirds of Americans thought the country would have elected a female president by now. Nearly 8 in 10 expected Americans in the future to have less personal privacy, and 57% thought that they’d experience less personal freedom. In fall 1998, about 60% of Americans said they were satisfied with the way things were going in the US.

Source: CNN December 29, 2025 20:12 UTC