A new YouGov survey on climate change and the environment finds that many Americans foresee dire consequences to climate change and experience anxiety or grief when they think about climate change, but few believe they personally will be harmed greatly by climate change.
One-quarter of Americans believe it is very or somewhat likely climate change will cause the extinction of the human race. More than twice as many think it is likely to cause cities to be lost to rising sea levels (56%), and similar proportions expect mass displacement of people from some parts of the world to others (57%) and serious damage to the global economy (58%).
Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say these catastrophic events are likely. The largest gaps are on serious damage to the global economy (82% of Democrats and 29% of Republicans think this is a likely result of climate change) and mass displacement from some parts of the world to others (81% vs. 32%).
Republicans are less likely now than they were in May 2025 to say it’s likely climate change will cause catastrophic outcomes. Today, fewer think that climate change will cause serious damage to the global economy (29%, down from 48%) or that it will cause cities to be lost to rising sea levels (31% vs. 44%). (The May 2025 poll included outcomes that were not included in the December 2025 survey.)
About half (47%) of Americans believe they will see catastrophic impacts of climate change within their lifetime; 46% don’t think they will. Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to think they will see this (73% vs. 20%); only 2% of Democrats but 13% of Republicans say the climate isn't changing.
Adults under 30 are slightly more likely than older Americans to think they will see the catastrophic impacts of climate change in their lifetime (56% vs. 45%).
About one-quarter (23%) of Americans say they experience distress such as anxiety or grief because of concerns over climate change. Adults under 45 are more likely than older Americans to say they experience this (31% vs 17%).
Democrats are about four times more likely than Republicans to say they experience distress because of concerns over climate change (36% vs. 9%).
In May 2025, about twice as many Republicans (17%) said they experienced distress because of concerns over climate change. (The question wording was slightly different: “Do you experience anxiety, grief, or other distress because of concerns over climate change?”)
Around one-third (35%) of Americans say climate change has caused them to reconsider their lifestyle choices, including diet, transportation, and travel. About as many (31%) say it’s caused them to reconsider decisions about where to live, and 15% — including 26% of adults under 30 — say it’s caused them to reconsider decisions to have children.
Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say climate change has caused them to reconsider all three of these decisions: where to live (45% vs. 15%), whether to have children (24% vs. 6%), and overall lifestyle choices (58% vs. 16%).
Even though many Americans feel anxiety or grief over climate change, and many say they factor it into their life decisions, few Americans think they will personally experience a large amount of harm because of climate change in the next 50 years. Only 16% think it will cause a large amount of harm to them personally during that time; larger shares think it will significantly harm their local community (21%), the U.S. (34%), and the world (41%).
Adults under 30 are more likely than older Americans to say climate change will do a large amount of harm to them personally in the next 50 years (22% vs. 14%).
The environmental issues Americans are most likely to describe as major problems in their local area — among 10 asked about in the poll — are extreme heat (30%), litter (28%), air pollution (23%), and water pollution (23%). Fewer say that natural disasters (20%), flooding (20%), and drinking water quality (18%) are major problems in their area.
People who live in cities are more likely than those who live in suburbs, towns, or rural areas to say litter (35% vs. 25%), air pollution (33% vs. 19%), and a lack of green space (25% vs. 12%) are major problems.
Many Americans (40%) say that they themselves are doing as much as they reasonably can to tackle climate change; far fewer (22%) say the same about the U.S. About half (51%) of Americans think the U.S. could be doing more to tackle climate change and 35% say this about themselves.
Four in 10 Americans (40%) believe that the average American does less than people in the rest of the world to protect the environment. About half as many (21%) think the average American does more than people in the rest of the world. Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans to say the average American does less (60% vs. 26%).
Only 13% of Americans believe they personally do less to protect the environment than the average American does. 31% think they do more than the average American; 43% think they do about the same amount. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they think they do more to protect the environment than the average American does (44% vs. 25%).
Majorities of Americans say they regularly recycle (59%), conserve electricity (56%), and use energy-efficient lights or appliances (55%). Smaller shares say they conserve water (47%), buy secondhand items (38%), avoid single-use products (30%), buy environmentally friendly products (28%), and walk, bike, or take public transportation (27%).
Americans 65 and older are more likely than younger adults to say they engage in many of the environmental behaviors asked about. They’re more likely to say they conserve electricity (77% vs. 50%), conserve water (60% vs. 44%), use energy-efficient lights or appliances (75% vs. 49%), and recycle (68% vs. 56%).
Very few Americans (9%) think it’s already too late to avoid the worst effects of climate change. 40% say the idea that comes closest to their view is that we are still able to avoid the worst effects of climate change but doing so would require a drastic change in the steps taken to tackle climate change. Fewer align with the views that we will be able to avoid the worst effects of climate change if we broadly carry on with the steps currently being taken to tackle it (17%) and that we will be able to avoid the worst effects of climate change without taking any steps to tackle it (9%).
Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say the view closest to their own is that we are still able to avoid the worst effects of climate change but to do so would require a drastic change in the steps taken to tackle it (61% vs. 18%).
Related:
- Americans support foreign disaster aid, but split over climate change's role in disasters
- Many Americans link increases in extreme weather to climate change
- Majorities of Americans say it's too hot where they live and expect temperatures to rise in 10 years
See the results for this YouGov survey
— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted on December 12 - 15, 2025 among 1,126 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4 percentage points.
Image: Getty (SimpleImages)
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