Eerie 1998 poll shows Americans making host of scarily accurate predictions about what would have happened by 2025
Among those surveyed, a majority said a deadly new disease would emerge, gay marriages would be commonplace and the country would elect its first black president.
A resurfaced poll from 1998 has highlighted Americans' surprisingly prescient predictions of what would happen by 2025.
At the time of the survey, former president Bill Clinton was facing impeachment, Titanic had brought home 11 Oscars and Michael Jordan was leading the Chicago Bulls to victory.
Gallup and USA Today conducted the wide-ranging poll by calling 1,055 Americans over landlines.
They gave their forecasts on everything from politics to health and space travel, with most Americans accurately predicting several aspects of modern life.
Among those surveyed, 75 percent said a deadly new disease would emerge, an eerie foreshadowing of the Covid pandemic.
Almost three-quarters of Americans accurately predicted that gay marriages would be commonplace. Same-sex marriage was legalized nationally in 2015.
Meanwhile, 69 percent of respondents believed the country would elect its first black president, a statement which came true in 2008 with the election of President Barack Obama.
Other predictions hinted at developments that have taken place over the last two and a half decades, though they were not completely accurate.
At the time of the survey, former president Bill Clinton was facing impeachment. He is pictured here addressing the Monica Lewinsky Scandal in 1998
Around three in four Americans predicted that a deadly new disease would emerge in eerie foreshadowing of the Covid pandemic
Americans also accurately predicted that space travel would not be commonplace for ordinary people. It remains limited to the famous and ultra-wealthy, such as Jeff Bezos' wife (left) and Katy Perry (second to left), who were part of the all-women Blue Origin human spaceflight
Most Americans expected almost all stores would be wiped out by online shopping and that most people would work from home.
Trends have certainly moved in that direction. According to the latest census data, 13.8 percent of US workers usually worked from home in 2023, which was more than double the rate of 5.7 percent in 2019. But the vast majority are still working from offices.
Online shopping has also grown tremendously, with Amazon being the fifth largest company in the US by market capitalization, valued at an eye-watering $2.48trillion.
But brick-and-mortar businesses are still thriving. Walmart, the largest company by revenue in the US, still makes more than 80 percent of that revenue through its physical locations.
A majority of survey respondents also expected illicit drug use, such as marijuana and cocaine, to become commonplace.