American are Thriving like never Before

Gallup polls U.S. workers and asks them to rate their current and future life on a scale of 0 to 10. These numbers then get converted into three categories, “thriving,” “struggling,” or “suffering.” Gallup reports its methodology as:

For its Life Evaluation Index, Gallup classifies Americans as “thriving,” “struggling” or “suffering” according to how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10, based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. Those who rate their current life a 7 or higher and their anticipated life in five years an 8 or higher are classified as thriving.

The number of “thriving” Americans has typically hovered just above 50 percent. During the pandemic, however, that number plummeted down to just 45 percent. However, since last December, Americans have finally put the worst of the pandemic behind them and are seeing their future look brighter than ever. Perhaps even more critically, the number of “suffering” Americans has remained flat, hovering below 4 percent. 

Breaking the Gallup numbers down, even more, Americans are about half as likely to be worried or stressed as they were last year. People are back to enjoying their lives again. In that regard, there is still room for growth and improvement. Gallup found that,

in 2018-2019, about 80% of U.S. adults reported significant enjoyment the day before, which plunged to 61% at the onset of the pandemic. By June, enjoyment was back up to 73% of the adult population.

Historically, the last time so many people were “thriving” was under the Trump administration. However, these numbers don’t seem to be correlated with partisan affiliation. CNN reports that only 8 percent of Americans believe that the coronavirus pandemic is the No. 1 problem facing Americans right now. Thus, it seems like the recent boost in morale has less to do with politics and more to do with people returning back to normal life.

Unsurprisingly, CNN’s poll found that Democrats and Republicans reported better mental-health outcomes as the pandemic has begun to  subsidize. Only 8 percent of Democrats and Republicans said their mental health got worse in the last week. That’s a terrific number considering that number hit as high as 35 percent last March. 

It’s good to have good news. While the economic recovery under the Biden administration has not been as robust as many would like, the mental-health bounce may be more robust than previously projected. Various pundits and those on social media may paint a gloomy picture of American life to get ratings and boost revenue, but many Americans are doing better than ever and that is reason to celebrate.