Just over half of Americans considered themselves to be "thriving" in 2023 on Gallup's Life Evaluation Index, slightly higher than the Great Recession and the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, Americans' reports of experiencing stress and worry "returned to pre-pandemic levels by April 2021 and have remained fairly steady since that time," Gallup said in a post.
The poll found that 52.1% of Americans evaluated their lives positively enough to be considered "thriving" on the index, compared with 50.2% in 2008-09 during the Great Recession and 50.1% post-COVID.
Americans who rate their lives a seven or higher and their lives in five years as eight or higher are considered "thriving," according to the index.
The "thriving" rate dropped among Republicans and independents but remained steady for Democrats.
"Electorally, the drop in the thriving percentage — particularly among independents — is potentially bad news for Joe Biden's reelection chances in 2024. Prior research involving data from 599 U.S. counties showed a strong link between low or declining life ratings and shifts from Democratic support in 2012 to Republican support in 2016 in the U.S. presidential elections," Gallup wrote.
The survey included responses from 6,386 adults from Nov. 30 to Dec. 8 and has a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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