The percentage of Americans who say they are very happy is the lowest it has been in 50 years, revealing the possible impact of the coronavirus outbreak on public sentiment.
Just 14% of adults in the U.S. say they are “very happy,” according to a poll published in late May by NORC at the University of Chicago. The number is the lowest recorded since national data on American attitudes and behaviors was first released in 1972.
The poll, which is part of the COVID Response Tracking Study published by NORC, surveyed 2,279 American adults via telephone interviews conducted in English and Spanish. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 2.9 percentage points.
62% of respondents said they were “pretty happy,” while 23% said they were “not too happy.”
Americans are historically unhappy! New @NORCNews polling shows the lowest percentage of Americans saying they are very happy in nearly five decades.@TamaraLush @kt_prry https://t.co/zz6igOLsVv pic.twitter.com/MeLVJkjVc9
— Hannah Fingerhut (@hrfingerhut) June 16, 2020
The U.S. entered a recession this year due to large decreases in domestic production and employment, along with business closures across the country. More than 100,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus thus far, with more than 2 million active cases.
The same poll, however, found that 80% of respondents were satisfied with their family’s financial situation, an all-time high. The distinction between high financial confidence and low happiness suggests that social and psychological issues are more connected to the pandemic than financial issues, according to the Associated Press.
With social distancing and other restrictions in place, around half of Americans reported feeling isolated, more than twice the number who reported the same two years ago. More people said they lacked companionship when compared to 2018, and a greater number of Americans reported feeling anxious or depressed.
Medical staff push a coronavirus patient on a gurney to a medical helicopter (Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images)
Respondents to the NORC poll who have been exposed to someone with the coronavirus were nearly twice as likely to say that they feel unable to overcome the difficulties in their life.
“2020 just fast forwarded a spiritual decay. When things are good, you don’t tend to look inwards,” said Jonathan Berney, a marketing manager at a law firm in Austin, Texas. He told the Associated Press that the pandemic had cost him his job and forced him to question whether or not he was truly happy. (RELATED: FAITH FILE: Why Are These People America’s Happiest?)
Americans are also less optimistic about whether or not standards of living will improve for the next generation. Less than half of respondents said their children would have a better standard of living than they did, the lowest percentage recorded in 25 years.
