Forty-eight percent (48%) of American voters believe that our nation's best days remain in the future. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 35% take the opposite view and believe that the best days of the USA are in the past.

These findings are from a national telephone survey of 1,500 Likely Voters conducted by Rasmussen Reports January 10-12, 2004. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Younger Americans are more optimistic than their elders. Among those under 30, 57% say the nation's best days are yet to come while 31% say they've come and gone. Those over 65 are evenly divided, with 42% saying future and 38% past.

Men (51% say future) are more optimistic than women (44%). Investors (52%) are more bullish than non-Investors (43%).

The Hispanic population (57%) is more likely to say that our best days are in the future than either white (46%) or black Americans (50%).

From a political perspective, 55% of Republicans say that the best days are in the future while 29% say the past. Democrats are evenly divided with 40% picking future and 42% the past. Fifty percent (50%) of those unaffiliated with either major party select the future while 33% say the past.