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Americans' Life Evaluation Reaches New High
 Dan Witters - Gallup
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March 13, 2010
Washington, D.C. - More Americans are "thriving" and fewer are "struggling" now than at any time since Gallup and Healthways began tracking Americans' life evaluation in January 2008. The percentage of "suffering" Americans remains low, at 3.4%.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index classifies Americans as either "thriving," "struggling," or "suffering," according to how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. The high percentage of "thriving" Americans coupled with the low percentage of "suffering" Americans also drove the overall Life Evaluation Index (determined by the difference between the two) to a new high of 50.4 in February. The Life Evaluation Index is one of six sub-indexes that comprise the overall Well-Being Index.
Life Evaluation Improves the Most for Young Adults and Blacks
Life Evaluation Index scores in February improved substantially across demographic groups when compared with the same month last year, when scores had just begun to recover from the largest decline in 26 months of successive measurement in late 2008. Scores for key subgroups are generally improved when compared with 2008 as well, though these much smaller differences indicate that the main source of the improvement in 2010 has more to do with the low 2009 scores than with strong 2010 scores.
Ratings for black and Asian Americans, those aged 30 to 44, and those with annual incomes of $24,000 to less than $48,000 show some of the largest increases from last year. The February Life Evaluation score for Americans with annual incomes of $90,000 or more is the highest of all groups examined. However, along with senior citizens, this score is the least improved when compared with February 2009 scores. Senior citizens consistently maintain the lowest Life Evaluation scores over time among all age groups.
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