In the first part of the Futures Barometer, we take a closer look at Danes' hopes, concerns and expectations for the future – and the differences between them. We place the results in an international context and compare them with similar studies conducted in other countries. Finally, we examine the themes that characterise the hopes and concerns of Danes for the next 10-20 years.

Since the post-war period, it has been central to our social and cultural self-understanding that each generation would be better off than the one before. That faith in progress now appears to have been shaken. Today, only a quarter of Danes believe their descendants will have a better life than their own, while a third expect it to be worse – in other words, optimism about the future is a view shared by only a minority of Danes in 2025.

We asked Danes to write three words describing what the future looks like in 2040 if it has turned out as they both feared and hoped for. The answers relate both to personal themes – the respondents' own lives – and to the general state of the world in the future. We compiled the open responses in a model representing how often similar words and themes recur

The second part of the Futures Barometer examines how Danes perceive the relationship between politics and futures thinking. We explore how the population perceives the long-term orientation of political decisions, the political system’s ability to address future challenges, and the level of public support for initiatives that seek to strengthen the link between political decision-making and future-oriented thinking and tools (foresight).

Politics is about the future – whether it concerns educational reforms, climate measures, immigration, fiscal policy, or any other area of political decision making.

But do Danes believe that the political decisions being made today take sufficient account of the long term? In this part of the Barometer, we focus on trust in political and institutional actors – and on people’s expectations of their ability to manage the challenges of the future.

63% of Danes believe that political decisions in Denmark are often characterised by short-term thinking, rather than efforts to create sustainable solutions for the next 10-20 years. This view is shared across the political spectrum – although, perhaps unsurprisingly, it is more strongly expressed among voters outside governing parties. Among Danes on each political wing, this applies to 69% (left-of-centre opposition) and 72% (right-of-centre opposition). But even among voters who would vote for a governing party, more than half (54%) agree.

Any political decision-maker would claim that political measures such as raising the retirement age or developing infrastructure plans to meet future needs are forward-looking – and with good reason. However, it is important to distinguish between, on the one hand, projecting future outcomes based on the logic of the present, versus on the other hand, exploring plausible futures that break with today's logic on key points. Developing truly future-oriented policies requires mastering and balancing both approaches.

Over the past decade, several countries have developed foresight capabilitieswithin their systems of political governance and public administration – thoughwith widely varying levels of ambition and purpose.

In Denmark, there is potential to learn from these examples and strengthen politicaldecision-making processes with tools that can help politicians and civilservants think about the future in a more long-term, explorative, and systematicway. However, such approaches have yet to be tested in practice. To gauge publicsupport for a such an initiative in Denmark, we asked Danes about their attitudestowards two specific measures – one hypothetical initiative at the national level andone existing initiative within the EU. In both cases, Danes responded positively.