Prosper Insights has done the research, and has discovered that more Americans are happy than not, that happiness is up compared to the initial survey on this topic almost two years back, and close-to-home elements are the primary nurturers of happiness.
For the month of November 2012, Prosper found that 58.3% of those surveyed were either happy or very happy. That’s up 4% from February 2010 when the initial happiness survey was conducted. However, Prosper also notes that the number is down from October 2012.
Here are scores for the 10 elements that go into producing the index.
Happy/Very Happy* Regarding Aspects of Life
Adults 18+
* Relationships with Family: 75.4%
* Relationships with Friends: 72.8%
* Home Life: 71.4%
* Neighborhood: 63.9%
* Religion/Faith: 63.0%
* House/Apartment/Condo: 62.0%
* Health: 59.2%
* Love Life: 57.1%
* Work Life: 40.1%
* Government: 17.7%
Source: Prosper Insights™/American Pulse™, Nov-12
“Measuring happiness among Americans is important because oftentimes you can draw correlations between it and key economic indicators such as housing and manufacturing output,” said Dianne Kremer, Senior Analyst, Prosper Insights. “However, frustration with Washington, likely due to uncertainty regarding the fiscal cliff, is weighing down happiness levels.”
RBR-TVBR observation: The basic stats outlined here should help nurture a healthy holiday season. People who are in a good frame of mind and place high value on relationships with family and friends are more likely to express this via the holiday gift-giving tradition. Philosophers have held for untold centuries that it’s good for the giver; and will add that it’s also good for gifted, and even better, it’s good for business, which makes it good for everybody!
