As households face increasing prices for goods and talk of new tariffs, Hispanic optimism in the economy waned in the first quarter of 2025, according to a poll from the Business Economic and Polling Initiative at Florida Atlantic University.

As households face increasing prices for goods and talk of new tariffs, Hispanic optimism in the economy waned in the first quarter of 2025, according to a poll from the Business Economic and Polling Initiative at Florida Atlantic University.

The Hispanic Consumer Sentiment Index (HSCI) decreased to 85.7 in the first quarter of 2025, down from 89.6 in the fourth quarter of 2024.

When compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, there was a decrease in optimism in four out of five questions used to generate the HCSI.

Looking at the year ahead, 53% of Hispanics said they expect the country to experience good business conditions, a decline from 61% in the prior quarter; and 64% of Hispanics indicated they will be better off over the next year, down from 70% in the last quarter of 2024.

  In terms of the long-run economic outlook of the country, Hispanics are less optimistic in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the fourth quarter of 2024 (52% vs. 58%).

Only 51% of Hispanics think it is a good time to buy big-ticket items, compared to 52% in the last quarter of 2024.

Only one question had an increase in confidence: 63% of Hispanics said they are better off financially than a year ago, which is 8 percentage points (55%) higher than the last quarter of 2024.

“Sentiment softened in four of the five questions this quarter,” said Monica Escaleras, Ph.D., chair and director of BEPI. “Persistently high borrowing costs and everyday price pressures – together with talk of new tariffs and a possible recession – are weighing on household outlooks. These headwinds are keeping many Hispanic families cautious about the economic outlook in the United States.”

The poll is based on a sample of 542 Hispanic adults over 18 years old. The survey was administered using both landlines via Interactive Voice Response data collection and online data collection using Dynata. Respondents were sampled between Jan. 1 and March 31 with a margin of error of +/- 4.21 percentage points. Responses for the entire sample were weighted to reflect the national distribution of the Hispanic population by region, education, gender, age and income according to the latest American Community Survey data. Full results can be found here.  

-FAU-