WASHINGTON—A new study shows that Americans' outlook on their financial future is better than it has been in at least seven years.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index indicates that in 2014, 54.1% of Americans, on average, rated their lives highly enough to be considered thriving and 42.1% were classified as struggling.
Gallup and Healthways began tracking Americans' life evaluations daily in 2008.
The poll 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. Those who rate their present life a 7 or higher and their lives in five years an 8 or higher are classified as thriving, while those who rate both dimensions a 4 or lower are considered suffering. Respondents whose ratings fall in between are considered struggling.
The rise in Americans' life ratings last year was driven by an improvement in how they evaluate their future lives, rather than their current situation, Gallup reported. Americans, on average, rated their future lives a 7.8, up from 7.6 in 2013, which is the highest recorded score on this measure to date. On the other hand, Americans' current life ratings averaged 7.0, unchanged from 2013 and similar to ratings found since 2009.
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