Most New Year’s resolutions focus on health
Five charts to start your day
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This chart matters because it shows what people really want to change when they decide to change anything at all. For all the talk about ambition, money and career goals, most resolutions are about the body.
Nearly 80% of people who made a New Year’s resolution say it was about health, exercise or diet. That dominance holds across every age group. Money and finances come a distant second at just over 60%, followed by relationships, hobbies and work. Career goals do not even crack the top three.
The pattern is revealing. Health feels both urgent and personal. It is the one area where people feel direct feedback from daily behaviour, whether that is energy, sleep, pain or weight. It is also the area where decline is hardest to ignore as people age. That may explain why health resolutions remain high even among older adults, while work related goals drop sharply later in life.
There is also a realism here. Big life changes are abstract and hard to sustain. Health goals feel concrete. Walk more. Eat better. Sleep earlier. Even if most resolutions fail, they fail in familiar territory. People return to the same intention year after year because the underlying problem never fully goes away.
Source: PEW Research Center
The New Year is a reminder that self improvement is a long game. The goals we set say something honest about what we value most. We want to feel better in our own bodies and more connected to the people around us. We want change that lasts beyond a single celebration.
There is something hopeful in that. It suggests that beneath the noise and spectacle we still care about the basics of a good life: health, time and connection.
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