WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index finds the number of struggling Americans eclipsing the number of thriving Americans for the fourth consecutive month.
Peaking in February at 50.7%, the percentage of thriving Americans declined to 45.3% in July. The change amounts to 14 million Americans, bringing the total number of adults who are now classified as either struggling or suffering to more than 123 million. Based on the responses of almost 200,000 Americans surveyed by Gallup so far this year, a shift of this magnitude is a significant reflection of the changing well-being of the American people.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index asks at least 1,000 Americans each day to evaluate their current lives as well as their expectations of where they will be in five years using a "ladder" scale with steps number from 0 to 10, where "0" indicates the worst possible life and "10" the best possible life. Based on these personal evaluations, respondents are classified into one of three categories: thriving, struggling, or suffering. (See the following graph for details.)
Income and Well-Being
Suffering is highest among Americans with annual household incomes of $6,000 to $12,000, and, perhaps due to their particular financial vulnerability, this group has registered the largest increase in suffering since the year began.
Suffering is relatively low among Americans with household incomes of $36,000 and above, but even though their greater financial security might insulate them from suffering, this group is increasingly struggling. Within this group, increased struggling is particularly pronounced among full-time and part-time workers and residents who are married with children.
The overwhelming majority of Americans, whether thriving, struggling, or suffering, hold negative views about the economy. Not surprisingly, residents who are thriving are more likely to perceive their personal living standards as "getting better." However, the erosion in the thriving population and the trend showing more and more middle- and upper-income Americans struggling may reflect that macro-level U.S. economic problems are increasingly hitting home for a broader cross-section of Americans.
The Daily Trend: Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index
Looking at day-to-day results so far this year, The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index finds the daily change in the percentage of thriving residents moving from a high of 55.6% on Feb. 20 to a low of 41.2% on June 5.
What best explains this downward trend in the percentage of thriving Americans? Studying other measures collected in the Gallup-Healthways Well-being Index, including opinions on basic needs, health satisfaction, work satisfaction, personal economics, and the economy in general, views of one's standard of living were most closely associated with changes in the percentage of thriving residents. Specifically, the percentage of Americans who say their standard of living is getting worse has increased from 30.6% average in January to 42.2% average in July, coinciding closely with declines in the percentage of Americans who are thriving.
Bottom Line
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index finds the nation's average well-being declining significantly over the past six months. The individual-level data provide clear evidence that Americans' worsening perceptions of their personal living standards have motivated these changes in well-being. During the period when the Gallup-Healthways index registered this decline in personal well-being, several economic indicators have shown negative change. The cost of almost everything Americans buy has increased. Most notably, gas is up from around $3 per gallon in January to sometimes exceeding $4 a gallon and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is up from $208 in January to more than $213. The unemployment rate is at a record high, and the credit crisis is far from over. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index findings during this period underscore the toll that the faltering economy has taken on the individual and collective well-being of the American public.
About the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index tracks the well-being of U.S. residents every day, with the goal of providing the world's most up-to-date measure of individual and collective health and well-being. For this survey, Gallup is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008. The large scale of the study allows for comparisons of well-being across days, regions, states, ZIP Codes, and climate zones over time -- as well as comparisons with Gallup surveys of well-being in more than 140 countries worldwide. Perhaps most importantly, these measures provide a valuable tool to all policy-makers, business leaders, and healthcare providers engaged in improving the health and well-being of their constituencies.
