Is the American Dream Dying? Most U.S. Latinos Think So

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For a long time, the American Dream has been a fundamental pillar of immigrant optimism in the United States, especially among Latinos. But after decades of being at the forefront of that dream, it seems that the idea that anyone, regardless of their origin, can achieve success, prosperity, and social mobility through hard work and opportunities in that country is disappearing at a rapid pace. Results published this month in the 2025 Hispanic Sentiment Study conducted by the Nielsen analytics company between March and April show that faith in this ideal has reached its lowest point since the survey began in 2018, with nearly half of Hispanics saying the dream is disappearing or no longer exists.

This decline is due to a combination of economic, social, and institutional factors, especially during Donald Trump’s second term. Rising costs of living, stagnant wages, and financial insecurity have made personal prosperity increasingly difficult to achieve, even despite the community’s growing economic contributions. These pressures, coupled with broader social challenges, have weakened the perception that the American Dream is attainable.

The death of the American Dream?

In 2025, 48.3% of Hispanics said that the American Dream is disappearing. This is a significant increase from 34.9% in 2023 and 30.5% in 2018, indicating an increasingly deep crisis of faith. The number of respondents who feel that the dream is already dead has also increased. That number more than doubled in just two years, from 10.5% in 2023 to 21.9% in 2025.

At the same time, optimism has crumbled. In 2018, 22.4% of Latinos said the American Dream was “still alive and well.” By 2025, that figure had fallen by more than half to 10.6%. Even the more moderate belief that the dream “is still alive, but not what it used to be” has declined, from 47% in 2018 to 41.1% in 2025.