(CP) A recent Gallup poll indicates that lower than half of Americans are “very satisfied” with their personal lives — a near-record low — though essentially the most satisfied are those that are religious, married and upper-income.
At 47%, the share of U.S. adults who expressed high satisfaction with their lives dipped below half for less than the third time in a long time, in response to data Gallup obtained from Jan. 2-22 of their Mood of the Nation poll, which they’ve conducted since 1979.
Since 2001, the analytics company has broken the info all the way down to further assess to what degree Americans are satisfied with their lives.
The variety of those that are “very satisfied” with life as of last month marks a steep drop from the high of 90% in January 2020, shortly before the economic devastation and political upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
The number dipped sharply to 51% the subsequent 12 months and held regular at that number in 2022 before continuing to say no.
Among the respondents this 12 months, 31% said they were somewhat satisfied, 11% were somewhat dissatisfied and 9% were very dissatisfied.
Gallup noted that Americans have expressed dissatisfaction with life during other periods of economic downturn, reminiscent of the bottom point of 46% in 2011 within the wake of the recession within the late 2000s.
The only other time the share of those “very satisfied” fell below half since 2001 was 47% in 2008, when the worldwide recession was at its worst.
Seventy-eight percent said they were either very or somewhat satisfied with life this 12 months, which marks a 5-percentage point drop since last 12 months.
The study also broke down the survey by grouping respondents’ annual household income, marital status, religious service attendance, education, political party, and age.
The most satisfied were married, college-educated respondents who made $100,000 or more and attended religious services weekly.
Each demographic saw either a decline or no change of their satisfaction aside from self-identified Democrats, who saw a 5-percentage point increase of their satisfaction in comparison with 2023.
Republicans, against this, saw their level of satisfaction crater by 10 percentage points since last 12 months.
Of age demographics, those 55 and older were among the many satisfied.
“Americans are currently less satisfied with their personal lives than they’ve been since 2011, whether that is predicated on the share satisfied or very satisfied,” Gallup said, which they suggested “coincides with weak economic confidence.”
“However, some groups of U.S. adults are still registering majority-level high satisfaction with their lives, including higher-income, married, more religious, college educated, older Americans and Democrats.”
A recent study from Pew Research Center showed that young adults are taking the brunt of the nation’s economic uncertainty.
Despite being higher educated, working longer hours, and earning higher incomes than their counterparts 30 years ago, greater than half of those 18 to 34 are financially depending on their parents, in response to data from two surveys conducted Oct. 24 to Nov. 5, 2023, using Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel.
The study showed many within the age bracket remain mired in debt, which has forced them to forego having a family and proceed living at home with their parents.
