WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans are feeling better about their lives at the end of the first half of 2009 than they were at the beginning. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index found 51% of Americans "thriving" in June -- compared with the 42% to 45% range seen on this measure from January through March. "Thriving" has now eclipsed "struggling" for three months straight -- marking the first prolonged period of sustained improvement in life evaluation since the economic downturn.
Prior to May, the last time a majority of Americans were classified as "thriving" was February 2008. In May 2008, the monthly percentage of struggling Americans first surpassed the percentage who were thriving, a trend that continued for 11 straight months before
the reverse became true in April 2009. The "thriving" figure sank as low as 37% last November, concurrent with the cascading problems on Wall Street.
Drawing on responses to two questions based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index classifies Americans as either "thriving," "struggling," or "suffering." The questions ask Americans to evaluate their current lives, as well as their expectations of where they will be in five years, on a ladder with steps numbered from 0 to 10, where "0" indicates the worst possible life and "10" the best possible life.
Americans in the "thriving" group say they presently stand on step 7 or higher of the Cantril ladder and expect to stand on step 8 or higher five years from now. Americans whom Gallup classifies as "suffering" say they presently stand on steps 0 to 4 of the Cantril ladder and expect to stand on steps 0 to 4 five years from now. The percentage of Americans who are suffering tends to remain fairly constant, with 3% of Americans classified as "suffering" in June. Americans whom Gallup does not classify as thriving or suffering are considered to be "struggling."
Age and Income
For the month of June, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index finds that young Americans and those in higher income brackets are the mostly likely to be thriving, a pattern typical for this measure. Fifty-nine percent of 18- to 29-year-olds are thriving and 40% are struggling; among the oldest cohort of Americans, those aged 65 and older, 41% are thriving and 54% are struggling. Americans in the highest income categories are also far more likely to be thriving than their lower-income counterparts.
Life Evaluation and Standard of Living
Gallup finds a clear relationship between the
Life Evaluation measure and the
Gallup Standard of Living indicator, with movement in the percentage of thriving Americans closely mirroring changes in the number who say their standard of living is getting better. Over the past three months, as Americans have begun to evaluate their lives more positively, Gallup has also tracked consistent gains in Americans' perceptions of their standard of living.
The June data show the percentages of thriving Americans and of those who say their standard of living is getting better exceeding year-ago levels. While the Life Evaluation and Standard of Living measures reflect in part how Americans view their personal financial status, the marked improvement in the two measures is not yet translating into a change in self-reported spending levels. Gallup's
Monitor of Consumer Spending continues to find Americans' daily spending average hovering around $60 in June, which is about 40% less than year-ago spending levels. The divergence in Americans' perceptions of their personal lives and their self-reported spending could point to what Gallup's Chief Economist Dennis Jacobe deems a
"new normal" in consumer spending behavior.
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 June 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.
