Americans’ life satisfaction at record high: Gallup

Americans’ life satisfaction has reached a record high in June after a year of struggles from the coronavirus pandemic. 

Gallup’s Live Evaluation Index found 59.2 percent of Americans considered themselves as “thriving,” the highest number since September 2017 when 57.3 percent of Americans felt that way.

The number also marks the highest peak since the coronavirus pandemic began last year. Just 46.4 percent of Americans said they were “thriving” in April 2020, which was the lowest percentage ever recorded. 

The significant increase in life satisfaction comes as the economy beginning to recover, businesses and travel open up and coronavirus restrictions are relaxed or dropped in many states.

Gallup’s poll measures citizens’ satisfaction with life by having them rate it on a scale of zero to ten. Anything above a seven is considered thriving. The other two categories and struggling and suffering.

Only 3.4 percent of Americans fell into the suffering catergory in June, according to the poll.

Along with life satisfaction going up, daily stress and worry have also returned to pre-pandemic levels with only 38 percent of people reporting stress and worry “a lot of the day yesterday.”

This is a significant decrease from March 2020 when 60 percent of people experienced daily stress and 58 percent experienced worry. 

The poll was conducted from June 14 to June 20 and surveyed 4,820 U.S. adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points.