45% of U.S. adults say that if they could choose, they would live sometime in the past. That includes 25% who would live less than 50 years in the past and another 20% who would live more than 50 years in the past. 40% of adults say they’d live in the present, and 14% say they’d live sometime in the future.

This Pew Research Center analysis explores how Americans think about the past, present and future – and which time they’d like to live in if given the choice.

This analysis is based on findings from a survey of 9,916 U.S. adults who are part of the Center’s American Trends Panel. The survey was conducted from July 8 to Aug. 3, 2025. The survey’s overall margin of error is plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.