Swing States Poll: Young people say they're better off

Americans under 30 overwhelmingly say they're better off than they were three years ago, while older people in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of key swing states have a more pessimistic view.

More than two-thirds of people 18 to 29 years old say they and their families are better off, compared with 36% of people 50 to 64 years old in the swing states.

STORY:  View from swing states

INTERACTIVE:  Poll tracker

The results among young people are interesting, especially given a 16.7% unemployment rate for people under 24. The over-50 group are the ones who have lost home equity and have seen their financial portfolios go down in value amid the sputtering economy.

Overall, a majority of registered voters (or 54%) in the swing states where the 2012 presidential election will be fought the hardest say they are not better off than they were three years ago.

Obama caused a stir when he told ABC News that he believes Americans aren't better off in his presidency.

"They're not better off than they were before Lehman collapsed, before the financial crisis, before this extraordinary recession that we're going through," Obama said in October.

"Are you better off than you were four years ago?" was a question Ronald Reagan asked during his successful presidential campaign against Jimmy Carter in 1980.

In thepoll, people over 50, Republicans and self-identified conservatives were least likely to say they and their families are doing better.

That could be a telling statistic going into the 2012 elections, since older people typically tend to vote more than younger people do. Obama's candidacy in 2008 helped swell the ranks of voters under 30.

This is the second swing states survey by USA TODAY/Gallup taking a look at voter attitudes in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.