More Republicans say they have had a harder time “thriving” in the last year than their Democratic counterparts, according to a new report detailing Americans’ perceptions of well-being.
Which party holds the White House “has a direct influence on how well (people) think their life is going, which is kind of fascinating, but it’s a consistent pattern,” said Dan Witters, research director for the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index.
The index began in 2008, surveying adults in the United States to put out regular reports on the population’s well-being, behaviors and attitudes.
It categorizes people’s experiences as “thriving,” “struggling” or “suffering” based on how they rate their current life on a scale of 1 to 10, as well as what they anticipate in five years.
“Those who rate their current life a 7 or higher and their anticipated life in five years an 8 or higher are classified as thriving,” the report said.
The 2023 data published Thursday found that overall the percentage of people in the United States who consider themselves to be thriving was on the decline in 2023 — with 52.1% falling into this category, compared with 55.5% in 2021 and 52.8% in 2022. The results were based on a survey completed by more than 6,000 adults in all 50 states from November 30 to December 8.
And researchers saw differences along political lines.
The percentage of Democrats who considered themselves to be thriving was low in the second half of 2020 at 45.5% — compared with 60.1% of Republicans. But the number of thriving Republicans continued to drop dramatically over the next three years to 51.7%, while thriving Democrats surged in the next year and has remained at around 55%.
The drop in Republicans who say they’re thriving did not align exactly with the timeline of President Joe Biden taking office, however, which researchers suspect may have to do with other factors.
“We postulate that the rollout of the (Covid-19) vaccine and the associated widespread economic reopening that occurred in 2021 lent a buoyancy to how Republicans were thinking about and evaluating their lives,” Witters said. “That kind of kept their life ratings nice and high despite the fact that (Donald) Trump was out and Biden was in.”