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America’s Emotional Health Continues To Improve

One of the world’s most powerful nations is finally also becoming a happier nation. Recent polls have revealed that the emotional health of Americans is higher than it has ever been since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it back in 2008. Ever since September, America’s emotional health has seemed to be improving slightly and now tops the record at 79.9 out of 100.

The research was compiled after 30,000 interviews of American adults were conducted. The findings, which are part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, show slight improvement in the overall happiness of Americans. The Emotional Health Index score is based on Americans’ own self-reports of positivity and negativity throughout their day. Those being surveyed gave responses regarding how much smiling, laughing, worrying, or stressing they did the day before.

The Emotional Health Index for Americans has on average remained between 77.5 and the new high of 79.9 through the past 4 ¼ years. The record low of 77.5 occurred back in December 2008, a very rough year for the economy. This has become a regular trend for the new index. The level of economic confidence seems to be directly related to Americans’ emotional health. When their economic confidence seems low, their emotional health appears to be relatively low as well. This is no surprise since a lack of economic confidence leaves many Americans stressing about finances and worried about daily lifestyle choices.

The good news is that now Americans are scoring better in 10 of the Emotional Health Index categories, including experiencing less stress and reports of experiencing more enjoyment. The largest jump in all of the categories appeared in the number of Americans who did not worry a lot the day before the survey. This section improved by 2.8 percentage points. Sadly, one of the lowest areas of improvement was the number of Americans who felt as if they were treated with respect all day the day before the survey, which only improved by 0.4 percentage points.

Overall, since September 2011 the Emotional Health Index score has improved by 1.6 percentage points.

 

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