Life Satisfaction
Many of the measures in this report—economic output, employment, greenhouse gas emissions, and life expectancy—are not matters of opinion. They go up or down regardless of what we think about them. But how people view the world is also important. The nation’s founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” So, it is worth asking: Are we actually happy or satisfied with our lives? The answers to this question are useful in part because of everything the other measures miss. We might have good jobs and incomes, but does that material prosperity actually make us feel better off? If we are not satisfied with our lives, then we might be passing on more discontent, or a reduced sense of hope, to our children.
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Satisfaction with Current LifeNational
Trend% of countries the US outperformsIntl. Rank
Trend70%Specific Measure:
Average evaluation of the population’s current life with 10 being the best possible life today and zero being the worst possible life today.
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Social IsolationNational
Trend% of countries the US outperformsIntl. Rank
Trend66%Specific Measure:
Percentage of people who do not have friends or relatives they can count on to help whenever they need.
Measures in green indicate an improving national trend or that we are outperforming at least 80% of countries.
Measures in red indicate a declining national trend or that we are outperforming less than 50% of countries.
Measures in yellow indicate stable trends or that we are outperforming 50-79% of countries.
Summary of Results
We included two measures for this topic: satisfaction with our current lives and social isolation—whether people have friends and family members they can count on. We are in the top half of countries on both of these measures, but not in the very top tier, and our international standing is declining over time.
Related Topics
It may be that the smartphone effect was compounded by other harmful trends. Life satisfaction is related to all the other subjective measures, including youth depression (see Children and Families), trust in people generally (see Social Capital), and all of the trust-in-institution measures (see Trust). Finally, social isolation is a widely accepted cause of suicide (see the Mental Health section).
Other Measures Considered
The board also considered but did not include other measures, including hope (i.e., how you would rate your life in five years, with 10 being the best possible and zero being the worst possible). The public also did not support this measure.