Published September 13, 2026. Last updated September 13, 2026.
Somebody writes a goal down, feels the pull of it for a few good weeks, and then one ordinary Tuesday just stops. No alarm goes off. The goal doesn’t get cancelled, it gets quietly outlived by everything else in the day. What percentage of people give up on their goals is a question with no clean answer, because no research body has ever tracked “goals” as one category the way it has tracked New Year’s resolutions specifically. What exists instead is a handful of studies that followed real people on a real calendar, week by week, and recorded exactly when they stopped.
Key takeaways
- No study located for this page measures what percentage of people abandon goals in general; the closest tracked evidence covers New Year’s resolutions specifically, followed on a real timeline (Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988).
- In a 200-person sample of New Year’s resolvers (fieldwork year undisclosed; published 1988) followed for two years, 77 percent still held their resolution at one week, falling to 55 percent at one month, 43 percent at three months, 40 percent at six months, and 19 percent at the two-year mark (Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988).
- Among 1,066 Swedish adults recruited in December 2016 and tracked through 2017, 88.8 percent considered themselves successful in January, falling to 54.7 percent by December of that same year (Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson, & Rozental, 2020).
- Among 1,066 Swedish adults tracked through 2017, resolutions framed as approaching something new succeeded 58.9 percent of the time against 47.1 percent for resolutions framed as avoiding something, a gap of 11.8 percentage points (Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson, & Rozental, 2020).
- Among 159 New Year’s resolvers followed for six months (fieldwork year undisclosed; published 2002), 46 percent reported success against 4 percent of 123 comparable nonresolvers who wanted the identical change (Norcross, Mrykalo, & Blagys, 2002).
- Across 94 independent tests reviewed in a meta-analysis (study years not stated in the abstract; published 2006), forming a specific if-then plan for a goal produced a medium-to-large effect on whether the goal was reached, d = .65 (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).
- No study located for this page isolates people who quit in the final stretch of a goal, close to completion, as its own measured category. The tracked resolution studies record abandonment at fixed calendar points. No study in this set measured distance from the finish line.
- A vendor fitness-tracking campaign known as “Quitter’s Day” is widely cited online as evidence for a specific mid-January drop-off date, but this page could not locate a Strava press release, blog post, or dataset stating a checkable methodology or figure as of this verification pass.
Cite this page
APA: Eduard, S. (2026, September 13). What percentage of people give up on their goals? The tracked numbers. StumbleTowardTheLight. https://stumbletowardthelight.com/what-percentage-of-people-give-up-on-their-goals/
MLA: Eduard, Sebastian. “What Percentage of People Give Up on Their Goals? The Tracked Numbers.” StumbleTowardTheLight, 13 Sept. 2026, stumbletowardthelight.com/what-percentage-of-people-give-up-on-their-goals/.
The source table
| # | Statistic | Data collected | Source type | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 77% of 200 New Year’s resolvers held their resolution at one week | Fieldwork year undisclosed; published 1988 | primary study | Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988 |
| 2 | 55% of the same cohort held it at one month | Same fieldwork as row 1 | primary study | Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988 |
| 3 | 43% held it at three months | Same fieldwork as row 1 | primary study | Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988 |
| 4 | 40% held it at six months | Same fieldwork as row 1 | primary study | Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988 |
| 5 | 19% held it at the two-year follow-up, the study’s longest measured point | Same fieldwork as row 1 | primary study | Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988 |
| 6 | Among 159 resolvers followed six months, 46% reported success | Fieldwork year undisclosed; published 2002 | primary study | Norcross, Mrykalo, & Blagys, 2002 |
| 7 | Among 123 nonresolvers wanting the same change over the same six months, 4% reported success | Same fieldwork as row 6 | primary study | Norcross, Mrykalo, & Blagys, 2002 |
| 8 | Resolvers were roughly 11.5 times more likely to report six-month success than nonresolvers (46 divided by 4) | Same fieldwork as row 6 | derived (rows 6 divided by 7) | Norcross, Mrykalo, & Blagys, 2002 |
| 9 | Among 1,066 Swedish adults, 88.8% considered themselves successful in January | Recruited December 2016; fielded through 2017 | primary study | Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson, & Rozental, 2020 |
| 10 | That share fell to 54.7% by the December assessment, and 55% still considered themselves successful at the one-year mark | Same fieldwork as row 9 | primary study | Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson, & Rozental, 2020 |
| 11 | Approach-framed resolutions succeeded 58.9% of the time against 47.1% for avoidance-framed ones, an 11.8 percentage-point gap | Same fieldwork as row 9 | derived (rows compared within the same study) | Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson, & Rozental, 2020 |
| 12 | Across 94 independent tests, forming an if-then implementation plan produced a medium-to-large effect on goal attainment, d = .65 | Study years not stated in the abstract; published 2006 | primary study (meta-analysis) | Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006 |
| 13 | No population figure for general goal abandonment, and no verifiable Strava “Quitter’s Day” dataset, located for this page | 2026 (this page’s verification pass) | derived (absence disclosed after checking rows 1 through 12) | see rows 1 through 12 |
What percentage of people give up on their goals?
No study measures this directly, because “goals” covers everything from a diet to a career change to a daily habit, and no survey has ever asked a representative population to report success or failure across all of them at once. The closest tracked evidence covers a narrower, better-measured category: New Year’s resolutions, which researchers can follow on a fixed calendar because everyone starts the same day. In the best-known longitudinal study, 200 resolvers lost more than half their number within the first month, 43 percent were still holding on at three months, and only 19 percent remained at the two-year mark (Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988). A separate, larger Swedish sample of 1,066 adults found 55 percent still calling themselves successful a full year in (Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson, & Rozental, 2020). Both numbers describe stated, tracked resolutions specifically, a narrower slice than every kind of goal a person might quietly hold.
How many people quit right before they finish?
No study located for this page isolates that moment as its own measured category. The tracked research records abandonment at fixed points on a calendar (one week, one month, one year). No study measured abandonment at a fixed distance from a finish line. A person who quits in month eleven of a twelve-month goal and a person who quits in week two both register the same way: as an abandoned resolution at whatever checkpoint the researcher happened to measure. The upper limit problem describes a related pattern, pulling back right as things start to go well, but it has its own separate research base and is not the same measured construct as resolution abandonment.
Why do people give up on their goals?
The clearest tracked factor is how the goal gets framed at the start. Among the 1,066 Swedish adults, resolutions built around approaching something new (starting a habit, learning a skill) succeeded 58.9 percent of the time, against 47.1 percent for resolutions built around avoiding or stopping something, an 11.8 percentage-point gap (Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson, & Rozental, 2020). A second tracked factor is the plan itself. Across 94 independent tests reviewed together, people who formed a specific if-then plan for when, where, and how they would act on a goal showed a medium-to-large jump in whether they reached it, d = .65 (study years not stated in the abstract; published 2006), against people who held the same intention without a plan attached (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). Neither factor explains every dropout. Some of the pattern connects to a deeper reflex covered in the psychology of self-sabotage, where the setback lands right as a goal is within reach. That is its own timing pattern, distinct from the fixed calendar checkpoints this page tracks. The broader research on that population-level question sits at what percentage of people self-sabotage.
New Year’s resolution success rate by month
The only study to publish a month-by-month curve is the 1988 cohort, and it drops fast in the early weeks before leveling out. Seventy-seven percent of the 200 resolvers held on at one week, 55 percent at one month, 43 percent at three months, 40 percent at six months, and 19 percent at two years (Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988). Most of the loss happened in that first month, and the curve flattened considerably after three months, meaning a resolution that survives its first ninety days has already cleared the steepest part of the drop. The Swedish cohort measured fewer points across a longer span, January and December of the same year, and still landed in similar territory: 88.8 percent in January, 54.7 percent by December (Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson, & Rozental, 2020).
Does making a plan actually help people keep a goal?
Yes, more than most single factors this research has measured. The 94-test review found implementation intentions, the practice of deciding in advance exactly when, where, and how a goal-directed action will happen, produced a medium-to-large effect on whether the goal got reached, d = .65 (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). The abstract for that review states only that it published in 2006; it does not state which years its underlying studies were run, and this page carries that gap plainly, the same way it carries every other undisclosed fieldwork year on this page. Related patterns around achievement and its costs are traced in fear of success statistics. The same 2002 resolution study found a related effect from the act of resolving itself: resolvers reported roughly 11.5 times the six-month success rate of nonresolvers who wanted the identical change but never formally committed to it (Norcross, Mrykalo, & Blagys, 2002).
The “92 percent of resolutions fail” figure
A round number, most often given as 92 percent failing or 8 percent succeeding, circulates widely online as the standard resolution-failure statistic. Two facts are checkable against it. First, the page most commonly credited as its source, statisticbrain.com’s New Year’s resolution statistics report, no longer resolves online (checked directly on September 13, 2026). Second, neither published Norcross study, the field’s actual tracked research on this exact population, reports 92 percent or its complement at any measured point: the 1988 cohort’s closest figures are 19 percent still holding a resolution at two years and 40 percent at six months, and the 2002 cohort’s closest figure is 46 percent reporting six-month success (Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988; Norcross, Mrykalo, & Blagys, 2002). The number does not trace back to either study that actually measured resolution abandonment over time.
Methodology
Statistics on this page were selected by starting from the citation ledger’s existing verified entries for Norcross and Oscarsson, checking each recorded finding against the source article directly, then searching for the goal-commitment literature the queue’s absorbed variants required: implementation intentions and the circulated 92 percent figure. The Gollwitzer and Sheeran meta-analysis was confirmed through its published abstract after its full text proved inaccessible behind a publisher paywall on repeated attempts; only the abstract’s stated figures appear here. A vendor “Quitter’s Day” dataset from Strava was searched for directly and could not be located in a form with a checkable methodology. This page states that absence plainly, in the same manner as every other unmeasured question here. For the full trace of adjacent self-sabotage research, see self-sabotage statistics. Sources last verified 2026-09-13.
Cite this page
APA: Eduard, S. (2026, September 13). What percentage of people give up on their goals? The tracked numbers. StumbleTowardTheLight. https://stumbletowardthelight.com/what-percentage-of-people-give-up-on-their-goals/
MLA: Eduard, Sebastian. “What Percentage of People Give Up on Their Goals? The Tracked Numbers.” StumbleTowardTheLight, 13 Sept. 2026, stumbletowardthelight.com/what-percentage-of-people-give-up-on-their-goals/.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of people give up on their New Year’s resolutions?
In the field’s longest-running tracked cohort, 200 resolvers fell from 77 percent still holding their resolution at one week to 19 percent at the two-year mark (Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988).
Is the 92 percent resolution failure rate real?
No traceable study reports it. The page most often credited with it no longer resolves online, and the two published Norcross studies that actually tracked resolutions over time report different numbers at every measured point, never 92 percent (Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988; Norcross, Mrykalo, & Blagys, 2002).
How long does the average goal last before people quit?
The 1988 cohort’s steepest drop happened inside the first month, from 77 percent at one week to 55 percent at one month, and the curve flattened considerably after the three-month mark, where 43 percent remained (Norcross & Vangarelli, 1988).
Are goals framed as gaining something more likely to succeed than goals framed as stopping something?
Yes. Among 1,066 Swedish adults, approach-framed resolutions succeeded 58.9 percent of the time against 47.1 percent for avoidance-framed ones (Oscarsson, Carlbring, Andersson, & Rozental, 2020).
Does writing down a specific plan for a goal actually increase the odds of reaching it?
Across 94 independent tests, forming a specific if-then plan for a goal produced a medium-to-large effect on reaching it, d = .65 (study years not stated in the abstract; published 2006), compared with holding the same goal without a plan (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).
Related reading
- Self-Sabotage Statistics: Every Verified Number, Traced and Dated
- The Psychology of Self-Sabotage: Why You Keep Destroying What You Build
- What Percentage of People Self Sabotage? What the Research Measures
References
Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69-119.
Norcross, J. C., Mrykalo, M. S., & Blagys, M. D. (2002). Auld lang syne: Success predictors, change processes, and self-reported outcomes of New Year’s resolvers and nonresolvers. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(4), 397-405.
Norcross, J. C., & Vangarelli, D. J. (1988). The resolution solution: Longitudinal examination of New Year’s change attempts. Journal of Substance Abuse, 1(2), 127-134.
Oscarsson, M., Carlbring, P., Andersson, G., & Rozental, A. (2020). A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals. PLOS ONE, 15(12), e0234097.