Alex Mitchell
(Australian Associated Press)

Will 2022 be better? Australians are uncertain about how optimistic, or not, to feel going into a third year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While 82 per cent of people polled by Ipsos anticipate a “better” 12 months, just 37 per cent of those canvassed by a separate Roy Morgan survey think the same.

Fewer people are as gloomy about the coming year compared with Roy Morgan’s previous poll a year ago.

But its latest snapshot of 1184 people in late November shows 23 per cent think 2022 will be even worse than this year while 31 believe it will be the same.

“During the past two years, the only certainty we have had during the pandemic has been dealing with uncertainty,” Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine said.

“The emergence of the Omicron variant shows there will still be a large degree of uncertainty going forward into 2022.”

Victoria is the most optimistic state, with 46 per cent of respondents believing 2022 will be better, followed by NSW where hope springs eternal for 44 per cent of people.

In Queensland, only 29 per cent of people are similarly optimistic. Just 24 per cent of Western Australians think next year holds better things, followed by 22 and 20 per cent of people in South Australia and Tasmania, respectively.

Ipsos surveyed people across more than 30 countries about their expectations between October and November.

Of the 1000-odd polled in Australia, 82 expect 2022 to be better.

This exceeds global optimism averaged at 77 per cent across various countries including the United States, Canada, Israel, China, the Netherlands, Great Britain and South Africa.

“Despite another tough year, particularly after it started relatively optimistically, Australians continue to show their positivity, optimism and ability to bounce back,” Ipsos’ Australian director David Elliott said.

Some 69 per cent of Australians think the global economy will improve next year, although 77 per cent expect prices to rise faster than incomes.

The survey also found 76 per cent anticipate city centres becoming busy again.

And nearly seven in 10 Australians expect more climate change-induced extreme weather events.