Story Highlights
- The percentage of U.S. adults classified as “thriving” drops to 55.1%
- Republicans and White Americans lead recent decline
- Significant daily worry and stress edge higher
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The percentage of Americans who evaluate their lives well enough to be considered “thriving” on Gallup’s Life Evaluation Index was 55.1% in November-December, down 4.1 percentage points from the 14-year high of 59.2% measured in June. During the initial COVID-19 outbreak and economic shutdown, the thriving percentage plunged nearly 10 points to 46.4% in late April 2020, tying the record low measured during the Great Recession.
The most recent results, from Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2021, are based on 4,001 U.S. adults surveyed by web as part of the Gallup Panel, a probability-based, non-opt-in panel of about 115,000 adults across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. These interviews were conducted after the omicron variant had been detected in South Africa but before the highly contagious COVID-19 variant had become widespread in the U.S. Cases of the delta variant, however, were rapidly rising during this time frame.
The movement in […]