Adults in the United States are suffering in their lives at a record level. That’s according to the latest in a survey series from Gallup. The share of adults rating their lives poorly enough to be considered ‘suffering‘, according to Gallup’s methodology, hit a new high of 5.6 percent this July.
The survey, which goes back as far as 2008, asks respondents to rate the current and expected future state of their lives on a scale of 0 to 10, with answers in the range of 0 to 4 classified as ‘suffering, 5 to 6 ‘struggling, and 7-10 ‘thriving. As reported, the latest result “exceeds the previous high of 4.8 percent measured in April and is statistically higher than all prior estimates in the Covid-19 era.”
Gallup suggest that “economic conditions are likely a major contributing factor to these worsening scores”, adding: “Dovetailing with economic headwinds is a rising discontentment with U.S. moral values, which has reached a record high, with 50% of Americans reporting the state of moral values is “poor” and 37% “only fair,” a sentiment that could be negatively influencing life ratings generally.”
This chart shows the share of U.S. adults who rated their lives on a scale of 0-10 which is classified as ‘suffering’.
