Ipsos study shows nostalgia outweighs optimism for 2025

Ipsos has released findings from its 30-country study, Is Life Getting Better?, examining how people compare life in 2025 with life in 1975. The research was conducted between 22 August and 5 September 2025 among 23,772 adults under the age of 75. Although 72% of respondents across the participating countries were born after 1975, nostalgia for the past remains widespread. In India, a notable share of people say life in 1975 was better than in 2025, despite having no first-hand experience of that period.

Indian respondents often referenced values and narratives passed down through generations, portraying earlier decades as more community-oriented and harmonious. Forty-four percent believe environmental conditions were better in 1975, with recent landslides and floods reinforcing the perception of decline. Forty-one percent feel people were happier then, citing factors such as stronger social bonds, limited digital distractions and slower routines that encouraged more family interaction.

These sentiments coexist with significant national progress over the last five decades. India has recorded advances in transport, infrastructure and modern amenities and is now the world’s fourth-largest economy, projected to rise to third place by 2030. Yet when asked to choose across attributes such as safety, living standards and healthcare access, many Indians still romanticise the past.

Education emerges as an exception. Respondents overwhelmingly believe it is better today, pointing to wider availability of skill-based, job-oriented programmes compared with earlier theory-focused curricula. Suresh Ramalingam, CEO of Ipsos India, noted that nostalgia remains strong even though 78% of surveyed Indians were born after 1975.

Globally, 44% of respondents say they would prefer to have been born in 1975, compared with 24% who prefer today. South Korea is the only country where more people favour the present. France displays the highest nostalgia level, followed by Belgium, Mexico, Great Britain and New Zealand.

Fifty-five percent of people globally believe their country was happier in 1975, and 61% say environmental conditions were better. However, 55% believe healthcare has improved, and perceptions of education vary by country. Living-standard assessments differ widely, with strong positivity in South Korea, Singapore and Poland, and more negative views in France, Türkiye and Canada. Gen Z shows the narrowest preference towards being born in the 2020s.

The study included face-to-face and online interviews, with the India sample comprising around 2,200 individuals.