Three-quarters of urban Indians expect life to be better in 2023

Latest data from YouGov’s New Year survey reveals 75% of urban Indians think their life will be better this year than it was in 2022. 21% think their life will be the same and only 4% think it will be worse than 2022.

Furthermore, a large majority is grateful for the past year and 63% of urban Indians feel 2022 was personally a good year for them. Among all respondents, millennials were most likely to say this at 68%.

One in ten urban Indians (10%) said it was a bad or a very bad year and 27% are unsure of their feelings about the past year.

In general, people claim to have experienced a more positive than negative impact of recovering from the pandemic. A quarter of urban Indians (25%) said the last few years since the pandemic has made them more balanced. Nearly a fifth (18%) think they have become more mindful since the pandemic, and one in eight (13%) feel they have become more optimistic.

While 14% feel there has been no change and they are the same as before the pandemic, there are some who have experienced some negative effects, such as becoming more fearful or more workaholic since the pandemic (10% each).

Thinking about what they could have done less in the past year, nearly half of urban Indians said they could have traveled or vacationed less in the past year (46%). Many feel they could have made lesser investments (43%) or eaten out less in 2022 (42%).

On the other hand, when asked about the things they could have done more in 2022, spending time with family and eating healthy were on top of the list, as said by a majority.

Moving ahead to 2023, it appears people would like to overcome regrets and work on the things they could not accomplish last year. Eating healthy is at the top of the priority list and seven in ten urban Indians (72%) would like to do more of it this year. Following this, a large majority would like to focus more on their mental and physical health (69% each), save more (67%), and spend more time with their family (66%).

A little over three in five would like to focus more on pursuing a career or on investing more (62% each).

Data was collected online among 1006 urban respondents in India by YouGov’s Omnibus in December 2022 using YouGov’s panel of over 20 million people worldwide