2025 is right around the corner and many Americans are getting their New Year’s resolutions ready. BetMGM Casino investigated which commonly set goals are most achievable for the average American by investigating how likely Americans are to achieve these goals, regardless of whether they were New Year’s resolutions. Existing statistics from the sources credited below were used and converted into likelihood ratios.
Most Achievable and Least Achievable New Year’s Resolutions
Here’s how the odds stack up for nine of the most popular New Year’s resolutions using statistics that were available between 2016 and 2024:
Findings To Keep In Mind For 2025
If you’re interested in hitting your goals for the new year, here are some important findings to keep in mind:
- Saving money is the most achievable goal for just over half of Americans.
- Eating healthy is almost as achievable as hitting or exceeding a saving goal.
- Americans are twice as likely to meet or exceed their saving goals than take a vacation.
- Financial habits are prioritized more than health-related habits such as sleep and exercise.
- Losing weight and stopping smoking are both equally difficult to achieve and the hardest to achieve goals for the average American.
Methodology
BetMGM Casino took 9 of the most common and recent New Year’s resolutions and looked at how likely the average American is to achieve them based on existing statistics of their occurrence. The most recent statistics that were available and as close to the topic as possible were analyzed:
- Save Money – Likelihood ratio 1.08:1
“52% of American adults met or exceeded their savings goals in 2023.” (2024 CNBC)
- Eat Healthy – Likelihood ratio 1:1
“50% of Americans claim to actively try to eat healthy.” (2023 Statista)
- Improve Sleep – Likelihood ratio 0.72:1
“For the first time in Gallup polling since 2001, a majority of U.S. adults, 57%, say they would feel better if they got more sleep.” (2024 Gallup)
- Learn a New Skill – Likelihood ratio 0.56:1
“36% of all adults… have taken a course or gotten additional training in the past 12 months to improve their job skills or expertise connected to career advancement.” (2016 PewResearch)
- Take More Vacations – Likelihood ratio 0.49:1
“Just over a quarter [27% of Americans] have not traveled for non-business related trips at all in the past 12 months.” (2023 Statista)
- Get Enough Exercise – Likelihood ratio 0.39:1
“28% of adults met combined aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines.” (2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Volunteer – Likelihood ratio 1:3
“28.3 percent of Americans – formally volunteered through an organization in 2023.” (2024 Americorps)
- Give up Smoking – Likelihood ratio 1:9
“In 2022, 8.8% of adults who smoked were able to successfully quit smoking in the past year.” (2024 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Lose Weight – Likelihood ratio 1:9
“The annual probability of 5% or greater weight loss was low (1 in 10) [10%].“ (2023 Kompaniyets L et al. JAMA Network Open).
Sources: Americorps, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CNBC, Gallup, JAMA Network Open, PewResearch, Statista.
