Listening to angry podcasters, political debates, or watching divisive social media video posts might give the impression that people in the United States are just unhappy. But according to the latest Gallup 2024 World Happiness Report, this is not just an impression; it’s reality.
In the poll, the United States hit an all-time low in happiness, failing to make the top 20 for the first time in the report’s history. Last year, the United States finished 15th on the list, but fell to 23rd this year.
The United States still ranks in the top 10 countries for those 60 and older, but for those under 30, it ranks 62nd. Finland has been the happiest in the world for the seventh straight year, according to Gallup. Lithuania was ranked the highest for those under 30, a demographic that helped the U.S. ranking plummet.
“We’re looking at a generation that has experienced an intensity of life and pace of change that’s unprecedented. To me, it’s another metric and dimension of how extreme and out of balance life is. It all seems too much,” said Dr. Jill Manning, a Denver-based licensed marital and family therapist and certified clinical partner specialist.
“That’s not to say there aren’t good things happening. But the overall pace and the disconnect between blessings and how people are experiencing them are grossly out of balance,” she told The Epoch Times.
Chuck Edwards, a wellness advocate and counselor in Michigan, says the lack of happiness for those under 30 probably began at home.
“For those under 30, in large part, there’s a disconnect between the parent-child relationship. So, if I’m a young person and don’t have that connection with a parent to keep me right side and I’m going to social media for that, it doesn’t end well,” he told The Epoch Times.
According to Gallup, isolation is one of the overriding issues affecting Americans’ happiness.
“There is widespread concern, especially in the United States, about an emerging epidemic of loneliness and the consequences of loneliness for mental and physical health,” the report’s authors wrote. “North American loneliness is almost twice as high among the millennials as among those born before 1965.”
Mr. Edwards believes that one of the most significant issues contributing to Americans feeling alone and isolated is that people have stopped talking.
“Listen, people just aren’t communicating. If I’m buried in my phone that’s going to cut back on social connection and interaction. If I went three weeks talking to no one versus talking every day for five minutes, we’re going to be in a different head space. Social media, phones, we’re just buried in our own self and missing that human connection,” he said.
The annual Gallup survey ranks global happiness in more than 140 countries worldwide based on six factors: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption. The national poll also found that Americans’ views of the national economy are mainly negative. That negativity peaked at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, falling to the worst reading since the Great Recession in the summer of 2022. Since then, it has fluctuated, with some minor signs of improvement before dropping again.
The poll’s conclusion was that less than half (47 percent) of U.S. adults are satisfied with their lives, 31 percent are somewhat satisfied, 11 percent are somewhat dissatisfied, and 9 percent are very unhappy. The current data also show that Americans’ views of the national economy are predominantly negative. Gallup has been polling Americans on whether they’re satisfied or dissatisfied with their personal lives since 1979.
While many Americans felt a relative disconnect from happiness in the poll, Gallup also found that upper income, married, and religious adults had the highest rate of satisfaction with American life.
That result came as little surprise to Dr. Manning. “We have a long-standing pattern of extreme living and the breakdown of the family. We’ve gotten off track and we’re reaping that right now. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone,” she said. “People who have a spiritual mooring will be able to see through the fog. It gives them a sense of purpose and steadiness.”
But dissatisfaction with life in the United States appears to be a sliding demographic scale, with global rankings for those 60 and older at least 50 places higher than for those under 30.
The reverse is true in Central and Eastern Europe, where younger people are happier than the old. Gallup says this represents a change from past surveys where between 2006 and 2010, young people in Northern America and Australia/New Zealand were just as content as older people, with a sharp decline in satisfaction since then.
Mr. Edwards believes increased reliance on social media has helped fuel the shift. “The voices, influencers, and infotainment we’re watching set a bar of expectation of life and lifestyle, relationships and marriages. It’s a bar set so high that if I can’t meet it, that’s going to lead to my discontent and unhappiness.“
