The FINANCIAL — Many Americans are celebrating the arrival of a new year, but very few actually feel New Year’s Day is one of our nation’s most important holidays.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds, in fact, that one-in-four adults (25%) consider New Year's Day one of our least important holidays, while 11% rank it as one of the most important. Sixty percent (60%) view it as somewhere in between the two.
These findings remain unchanged from previous surveys.
Men and women under the age of 40 tend to view New Year's Day more importantly than their elders.
New Year's Day comes just one week after Christmas, the holiday Americans consistently rate as the most important. But the Fourth of July is a close second.
Just 17% of Americans expect to wake up with a hangover on New Year's Day, while 47% think it's likely they'll watch a football game some time today. One-third of Americans plan to make a New Year's resolution, and those who make one insist they’ll keep it.
African-Americans are much more likely than whites to rank New Year's Day as one of the most important holidays. Lower-income adults have a higher opinion of the holiday than those who earn more.
Thanksgiving, Memorial Day and Veterans Day fall just after Christmas and July 4 in terms of importance to Americans. Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day are generally viewed as the least important holidays.
Click here to see how adults across the country planned to ring in the new year last night.
Americans expected the current year to be better than it turned out but are more hopeful about the year to come. This is similar to findings in previous years. Still, adults are less optimistic about the upcoming year than they’ve been in the previous seven years of surveying.
Winter is barely a week old, and more than one-third of Americans already say the season is worse than it has been in recent years.
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