Most Americans are satisfied with their lives, reveals Harris poll

Nov 5 2009

A new Harris Poll finds that the great majority of the public is satisfied with their lives, and that most people believe that their personal situation will improve over the next five years. The numbers who feel this way are lower today than they were in the last few years, but most Americans are still upbeat and optimistic in spite of the economic tough times and the increase in unemployment. Furthermore, a majority of Echo Boomers (aged 18-30), and pluralities of Gen X (aged 31-42) and Baby Boomers feel their present situation today is better than it was five years ago. Only among Matures (aged 62+) is there a plurality who feels that their situation has become worse.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll^® of 1,019 adults surveyed by telephone between October 13 and 18, 2009 by Harris Interactive^®.

Some of the most interesting findings are:

• Fully 88% of all adults are satisfied with their lives, and 54% are very satisfied. However, these numbers are lower than in any of the four other Harris Polls that asked these questions since 2003.
• More people (40%) feel that their situation has improved over the last five years than feel it has got worse (27%). However, among Matures (aged 62+), more people feel their situation has become worse (30%) than better (20%). The 40% who feel their situation has improved is lower than it was in any of the four previous surveys. In 2005, a 56% majority felt this way.
• Notwithstanding the economic bad times, a 54% majority of adults believe their personal situation will improve over the next five years. However, this is lower than it was. In 2005, fully 65% believed their situation would improve.
• On this question about the future, there are very large differences between generations. The older people are, the less likely they are to be optimistic. Fully 82% of Echo Boomers (aged 18-30) and majorities of Gen X (64%) and Baby Boomers (54%) believe their situation will improve. Only 21% of Matures believe this.
• Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be very satisfied with their lives (63% vs. 49%) but are less likely to believe that their personal situation will improve in the next five years (52% vs. 63%).
• People with higher incomes are a little more satisfied with their lives, and are much more likely to feel their personal situation has improved in the last five years (52% among people with household incomes of $75,000 or more, compared to 32% of people with incomes of less than $35,000). However, they are not significantly more optimistic about the next five years than are people with incomes below $50,000 or below $35,000.

So what?

Many foreign observers of the United States over the last 200 or more years have remarked that Americans seem to be more optimistic than people living in “the old world,” from which most immigrants came.

This new poll shows that, whatever our current problems are, American optimism is alive and well.

TABLE 1

OVERALL LIFE SATISFACTION

“On the whole, are you very satisfied, fairly satisfied, not very satisfied or not at all satisfied with the life you lead?”

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

* Less than 0.5%

TABLE 2

PRESENT LIFE SITUATION COMPARED TO FIVE YEARS AGO – TREND

“If you compare your present situation with five years ago, would you say it has improved, stayed about the same or got worse?”

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

* Less than 0.5%

TABLE 3

PRESENT LIFE SITUATION COMPARED TO FIVE YEARS AGO

“If you compare your present situation with five years ago, would you say it has improved, stayed about the same or got worse?”

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

* Less than 0.5% “-“ No response

TABLE 4

EXPECTED PERSONAL SITUATION IN FIVE YEARS - TREND

“In the course of the next five years, do you expect your personal situation to improve, to stay about the same or to get worse?”

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 5

EXPECTED PERSONAL SITUATION IN FIVE YEARS

“In the course of the next five years, do you expect your personal situation to improve, to stay about the same or to get worse?”

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

“-“ No response

TABLE 6

SELECTED ATTITUDES AND EXPECTATIONS – BY PARTY

Base: All adults

TABLE 7

SELECTED ATTITUDES – BY INCOME

Base: All adults

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted by telephone within the United States October 13 and 18, 2009 among 1,019 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.