Will New Year’s Eve be loud or quiet? What are the top 2025 resolutions? AP-NORC poll has answers

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NEW YORK (AP) — If you’re planning to celebrate the New Year quietly at home, you’re not alone.

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A majority of American adults plan to celebrate New Year’s Eve at home, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

“As I’ve gotten older over the last few years, it’s like if I can’t make it at midnight, it’s no big deal, you know?” says Carla Woods, 70, of Vinton, Iowa.

The survey found that nearly 2 in 10 will celebrate at a friend or family member’s house, while only 5% plan to go out to celebrate at a bar, restaurant or organized event.

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But many adults in the United States will celebrate the New Year in a different way — by making a resolution. More than half say they will make at least one resolution for 2025.

There is some optimism about the year ahead, although more than half do not expect positive change. About 4 in 10 say 2025 will be a better year for them personally. About a third do not expect there to be much difference between 2024 and 2025, and about a quarter believe that 2025 will be a worse year than 2024.

Comfortable New Year’s Eve plans for many

Courtney Kershaw, a 32-year-old bartender in Chicago, often gets questions from customers and friends about upcoming New Year’s Eve events. This year is trending downward, she said.

“The majority of people I talked to in my age group, they want to go out, but they don’t know what to do because they can’t find anything or things are really expensive,” she said. He said. “Party packages or entrance fees are a turn-off, especially with the world’s climate and the cost of things.”

As expected, younger people are more interested in celebrating the New Year at a bar or organized event — about 1 in 10 American adults under 30 say they plan to do so. But about 3 in 10 older people – 60 and over – say they won’t celebrate the start of 2025 at all.

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Anthony Tremblay, 35, of Pittsburgh, doesn’t usually go out to ring in the New Year, but this year he has something special prepared: He and his wife will be traveling through Ireland.

“I don’t do anything too crazy on New Year’s, usually. So this is definitely a change,” he said. “I wanted to do something unique this year, and that’s what I did.”

Woods will work New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. She answers calls to Iowa Warmline, a confidential, non-crisis listening line for people with mental health or substance abuse issues.

“The holidays are very difficult for people, so I don’t mind working,” she said. “I’m passionate about this because I have mental health issues in my family, so being able to help people is so rewarding for me.”

Younger Americans are more likely to make up their mind

Every New Year also sparks an eternal debate about resolutions. A majority of U.S. adults say they plan to make some kind of New Year’s resolution, but Millennials and Generation Z are particularly likely to be on board — about two-thirds expect to do so, compared to about half of older adults. Women are also more likely than men to say they will set a goal for 2025.

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Tremblay hopes to lose some weight and focus more on self-care — more sleep, meditation and breathing exercises. “This is probably a good year to focus on mental health,” he said.

Many others agree. About 3 in 10 adults make choices that involve exercising or eating healthy. About a quarter said they would make a resolution that involved losing weight, and a similar number said they would resolve to make changes to their money or mental health priorities.

Woods’ resolutions are to stay social and active. As a mental health counselor, she knows these things are key to a happy 2025 and beyond: “Probably one of my biggest resolutions is trying to make sure I stay social, and trying to get out at least once a week – going out and having a coffee either.” Or do something with a friend. This is not only limited to the physical aspect, but also to mental health.

Losing weight and improving health are the most important decisions she hears people make, says Kershaw, the waitress. “Mental health is the new health, but I think it’s just as important there as it is with regular health,” she said.

She prefers more goal-oriented resolutions, and this time, it’s about traveling more and seeing more of the world: “I don’t know if this is really a resolution, but that’s the goal I’m setting.”

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How will you welcome the arrival of 2025? Usually, you take a vacation and stay home watching movies with lots of snacks, but Kershaw has a different plan this year, and it might be one of the most fun things to do in Chicago.

This die-hard sports fan will be at Wrigley Field on Tuesday to watch the Chicago Blackhawks take on the St. Louis Blues. “Hockey is my favorite sport. So I will watch hockey and ring in the new year,” she said.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,251 adults was conducted Dec. 5-9, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

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Sanders reported from Washington.

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