A little girl is comforted by her dad as a doctor administers a vaccine injection.

Brief

More Are Receptive to Vaccines, but Fewer Are Optimistic About the Future

December 2021

As vaccination rates continue to creep higher in the U.S., this latest research brief reveals that consumers have turned a more cautious eye toward the economic outlook, according to key findings of the 10th COVID-19 Survey of Consumers conducted by the Consumer Finance Institute (CFI).

CFI’s 10th survey of consumers found that 72.6 percent of respondents said they were fully vaccinated or had received at least one shot. That’s up from the 65.8 percent reported in the ninth survey and is the highest rate since the CFI began asking about vaccines. Additionally, 62.2 percent of parents in the survey indicated that they will get their younger children vaccinated once they get FDA approval. Reports of the Delta variant pushed more people to get a shot. More than one in three (35.5 percent) said news reports of the Delta and other variants made them more likely or willing to get vaccinated.

While receptivity to the vaccines is rising, consumers’ view of the future has not improved. Indeed, people were less upbeat in October than in July. In the latest survey, 23.0 percent of respondents said they felt more or significantly more negative about their personal outlook than they did at the start of 2021. That’s an increase of 10.1 percentage points since the middle of the year. It is possible that consumers recognize that progress against the pandemic is occurring, but the economic challenges highlighted and exacerbated by the pandemic may take longer to resolve.

View the Full Brief

CFI COVID-19 Survey of Consumers – Cautious Optimism Reigns in Wave 9

Tom Akana

08 Sep ’21

This report shares results from Wave 9 of a national survey of consumers investigating the effects of COVID-19 on employment and income data, including expectations for income in 2021 and information on financial security over the next three to 12 months.

Consumer Credit

Brief

Overdraft Use During the Pandemic: Insights from the CFI COVID-19 Survey of Consumers

30 Aug ’21

This research brief examines consumers’ experiences with checking account overdrafts since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, using responses gathered from a special module in the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Consumer Finance Institute "COVID-19 Survey of Consumers."

Consumer Finance

Brief

Despite Significant Vaccine Reluctance, More Consumers Are Upbeat About the Future

With vaccines becoming available to all adults in the United States, this latest research brief focuses on how receptive or reluctant consumers were in getting vaccinated based on data from the Consumer Finance Institute’s COVID-19 Survey of Consumers.