Gallup and The Rippel Foundation: Thriving Together in America

The 2026 Gallup-Rippel report examines how Americans’ wellbeing has declined since reaching a post-pandemic peak five years ago, using Gallup's Life Evaluation Index to track how people assess their lives today and expect their lives to look five years from now. Key findings reveal that national wellbeing has fallen to levels not seen since the Great Recession and the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, with young adults driving the steepest decline of any age group and a growing share of Americans now classified as suffering rather than thriving or struggling.

Differences in wellbeing across racial and ethnic groups have also narrowed, not because some groups improved, but because most have declined together. A decades-old gender gap has flipped as well, with women’s wellbeing now more commonly trailing men’s after years of the opposite being true. Life evaluation also continues to vary widely by community, with some places thriving while others struggle significantly.

At the same time, Americans’ optimism about their futures has declined faster than their assessment of the present, reversing a longstanding pattern in which people typically felt more hopeful about what's ahead than about where they stand today.