WASHINGTON, D.C. -- More Americans were "thriving" than "struggling" in April -- a first since February 2008.
In an aggregate of interviews conducted in April 2009, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index finds 50% of Americans to be thriving and 47% struggling. This is a positive reversal of a trend that started last spring and worsened as the effects of the financial crisis permeated many Americans' lives. In April, the Index also recorded an overall national composite index score of 65.8 -- up from 64.3 in March, but still below the 66.7 in April of last year.
Gallup and Healthways began tracking life evaluation last year, with the monthly average percentage of thriving Americans peaking at 51% in February 2008, declining substantially as the economic crisis escalated in the fall of 2008, and hitting a low of 37% last November. From January to March 2009, the monthly thriving percentages remained low compared to last year.
Based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, 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 with steps numbered from 0 to 10, where "0" indicates the worst possible life and "10" the best possible life. Americans classified as "thriving" say they presently stand on step 7 or higher of the ladder and expect to stand on step 8 or higher five years from now. "Suffering" Americans are those who say they presently stand on steps 0 to 4 of the ladder and expect to stand on steps 0 to 4 five years from now. Americans whom Gallup does not classify as thriving or suffering are considered to be "struggling."
Gallup tracks several other measures daily and finds a clear relationship between the Life Evaluation measure and the Gallup Standard of Living Index. Specifically, the percentage who are thriving appears to increase and decrease in tandem with the percentage who say their standard of living is getting better.
Similar to the pattern seen with life evaluation, April marks the first month since August 2008 in which the percentage of people who perceive their standard of living as getting better exceeds the percentage who perceive it as getting worse. James K. Harter, Ph.D., Gallup's chief scientist for workplace management and well-being, adds that "the ladder has historically been very income- and status-sensitive, and the standard-of-living and life evaluation items correlate very highly with each other."
In May so far, Gallup continues to find the Standard of Living Index on the rise, hitting its highest level in more than a year in the week leading up to Mother's Day, and the percentage of thriving Americans continuing to outnumber those who are struggling. Along with these improving perceptions of Americans' personal lives, Gallup also reports positive momentum in its Consumer Mood Index, which measures views on current economic conditions and economic outlook. If these attitudinal measures stabilize or recover further in the weeks and months ahead, they could be a tentative leading indicator that Americans are mentally bouncing back from the shock of the recession and could lead to a turnaround in consumer spending, which is yet to be seen.
Survey Methods
Results are based on telephone interviews with approximately 30,000 adults per month in the United States, aged 18 and older, conducted January 2008 to April 2009 as part of Gallup Poll Daily tracking. For results based on each monthly sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±0.2 percentage points.
Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
About the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™ measures the daily pulse of U.S. well-being and provides best-in-class solutions for a healthier world. To learn more, please visit www.well-beingindex.com.
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