More than half of Nebraska residents feel the state is heading in the wrong direction, despite putting pandemic pessimism behind them. The latest numbers come from a report by the Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey.

The study asks Nebraskans to evaluate the general direction of the state based on seven social factors. The study shows that in 2022, 76% of Nebraskans felt the state was going in the wrong direction. By 2024, the number fell, but it was still above 50-percent.

Amanda Ganshert is the assistant director for research and methods at the Bureau of Sociological Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

"While we can't really speculate what caused those changes, other people can make their own conclusions from the data that we're showing," said Ganshert. "Maybe see if there are policy changes that we should implement or go back to when fewer people thought things were going in the wrong direction."

Negative attitudes about the country and state were highest during the pandemic and the two years following.

The research also shows that 61% of respondents between 19 and 44 years old felt the nation as a whole is going in the wrong direction. Only 40% of those between 45 and 64 years old felt that way.

Ganshert said this is the first in a series of reports based on this data.

"We've been wanting to look at things over time for awhile," said Ganshert. "We have other questions on the NASIS, the Nebraska Annual Social Indicator Survey, that we've asked for many years, and we are going to start putting out more of these that are trends."

For this latest study, researchers randomly surveyed adults 19 and older who were living in a Nebraska household.

Source: Public News Service