Americans' Life Ratings Up in Early 2012; Life evaluation up along with standard of living, U.S. satisfaction.

Byline: Alyssa Brown

Synopsis: Americans rated their lives better in the first three months of 2012 than they did in the final three months of 2011, with their collective Life Evaluation Index score rising to 49.9 in March. This is up from a low of 46.8 in October.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' Life Evaluation Index score of 49.9 in March continues the more positive trend seen in January (50.1) and February (49.6). These ratings are higher than they were in the final three months of 2011, including last October's Life Evaluation Index score of 46.8, which at the time was the lowest level in more than two years.

Americans' life ratings, which Gallup and Healthways started tracking daily in January 2008, started steadily improving in the winter, at about the same time that Americans' economic confidence and satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. began improving.

The Life Evaluation Index, part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, classifies Americans as "thriving," "struggling," or "suffering" according to how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10 based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. The overall Life Evaluation Index score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of suffering Americans from the percentage of thriving Americans.

The percentage of Americans who rated their lives well enough to be classified as thriving was 53.3% in March, similar to the 53.0% in February. In March 2011, 53.9% of Americans were classified as thriving.

The percentage of Americans who were struggling in March, at 43.4%, was about on par with February. The percentage suffering also remained essentially unchanged at 3.4%, compared with 3.5% in February.

Life Ratings Continue to Mirror Standard of Living and U.S. Satisfaction Trends

The improvement in Americans' life ratings since October has tracked with their improving standard of living perceptions, satisfaction with the direction of the U.S., and economic confidence.

Gallup's Standard of Living Index score in March was the second highest since February 2011. Similarly, the Life Evaluation Index score in March was the second highest since June 2011. Both indexes had slightly higher scores in January, fell slightly in February, and increased again in March.

Bottom Line

Americans' life ratings increased steadily in the final months of 2011 and into January, and have held that higher level in February and now in...

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