North Dakota

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.

Summary of Results.

North Dakota's progress in this area has been unclear. Social isolation does not have enough data points to confidently determine a trend. Unfortunately, North Dakota does not have any data for satisfaction with our current lives.

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  • Satisfaction with Current Life
    Specific Measure

    Percentage of adults who report being very happy with their life

    (Source: Authors' analysis of the General Social Survey (GSS) data and IPUMS-harmonized ACS/CPS microdata).
    State Rank
    State vs. US trend
    NA
    NA

    Why did we include this measure?

    Perhaps more than any other measure, this one tells us how Americans feel about their own current state of affairs. This measure is about how we feel about our own lives. Unfortunately, North Dakota does not have any data for this measure. We hope to include it in the future if the data become available.

    View Satisfaction with Current Life Nationwide

    North Dakota State Trend Not available

  • Social Isolation
    Specific Measure

    Percentage of adults who are not getting social and emotional support they need sometimes, usually, or always

    (Source: Authors' analysis of Census Bureau data).
    State Rank
    State vs. US trend
    21

    Why did we include this measure?

    Humans are naturally social. Our sense of happiness, purpose, and security depends heavily on our friends and family members. When life gets difficult, we need people we can count on to lift us back up.

    How does North Dakota compare to the rest of the country?

    Unfortunately, North Dakota's trend in social isolation does not have enough data points to compare it to the rest of the country. In the most recent year, North Dakota ranked 21 (out of 51). In the same year, Washington DC ranked first, and Nevada ranked last.

    Additional Information.

    Current life satisfaction and social isolation may be partially intertwined: people may be less satisfied with their current lives because they are more socially isolated, and they are more isolated because they have a more negative outlook that pushes them away from friends and family. The increased pressure we place on ourselves to excel in life could explain both patterns: raising expectations about some areas of our lives and leading us to put less effort into our relationships.
    View Social Isolation Nationwide

    North Dakota State Trend Unclear

How to Read This Report:

We report each measure three different ways: State Rank, State Trend, State vs. US Trend. Each result is color coded as either red (negative/worsening), yellow (neutral/stable), or green (positive/improving), as indicated below. If the simple trends were erratic, had too few data points, or had no data points, we do not color code and label the trend as “mixed,” "unclear," or "NA," respectively.

State Rank

(Where are we now?)

State Trend

(Where are we going?)

State vs. US Trend

(How do we compare?)

Top third of states
(i.e., ranks 1-17)

Improving
Trendline is improving by >5% and most points are improving relative to the first data point.

Improving
Trendline is improving relative to the national trend and rank is improving by 2+ rank spots.

Middle third of states
(i.e., ranks 18-34)

Neutral/Stable
Doesn't fall into improving, worsening, mixed, unclear, or NA categories.

Neutral/Stable
Trendline is improving/worsening the same amount as the national trend or rank is changing by <2 spots.

Bottom third of states
(i.e., ranks 35-51)

Worsening
Trendline is worsening by >5% and most points are worsening relative to the first data point.

Worsening
Trendline is worsening relative to national trend and rank is declining by 2+ rank spots

Mixed
Large shares of points are improving and worsening by >5% in different parts of the trend.

Mixed
This label only applies when a measure has more than 1 trendline. One trendline is improving and another is worsening.

Unclear
Not enough data to determine a trend.

Unclear
Not enough data to determine a comparison.

NA

Not Applicable
No data.

Not Applicable
No data.

Not Applicable
No data.

For more information on our definitions and methods, please see the Data Notes section.

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