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Happiness by the numbers…..Can money buy happiness?
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Youth is bliss. Photo by: Genevieve Dewyea
The pursuit of happiness is so fundamentally American that it's listed right up there with life and liberty in the Declaration of Independence. As the economy sags and bad times abound can CEOs really find happiness in those seven-figure bonuses?
Bestselling author Eckhart Tolle calls the expectation of happiness a uniquely American entitlement. Americans may be more disposed than other nationalities to strive for affluence and role play behind a smiling façade, pretending everything's fine, said Tolle, author of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Plume, Penguin Publishing).
What's behind the façade? How happy are we and what makes us happy? Happiness, it seems, is fairly stable and is linked to money, love and age.
Overall, American happiness rates have remained fairly even for the past 30 years., More than 30 percent of Americans rated themselves as very happy, and more than 55 percent rated themselves pretty happy, according to the Pew Research Center General Social Survey.
What factors most influence happiness? The study found that married people, people with higher incomes, Republicans, those who worship frequently, whites and Hispanics and Sunbelt residents are happier than other groups. At least that's what they tell researchers.
The link between money and happiness, however, is a complicated one. Another long term study found that while Americans' personal incomes had risen markedly from $10,000 a year in 1957 to more than $28,000 in 2005, the percentage describing themselves as "very happy" declined slightly from 35 to 30 percent, according to the National Opinion Research Center.
"We are twice as rich and no happier," said David Myers, a Hope College social scientist. " Meanwhile, the divorce rate has doubled, the teen suicide rate has more than doubled, and increasingly our teens and young adults are plagued by depression."
On the down side, the Pew Center found that between 18 and 10 percent of Americans rated themselves as "not too happy" between 1972 and 2004, the last year for which figures are available.
Current studies zero in further on one measure of unhappiness. A 2009 Gallup poll reveals that 17 % of Americans or 40 million American adults report having been diagnosed with depression, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index.
Of all the sub-groups analyzed, Americans making less than $24,000 a year (30%) and those who had been divorced or separated (29%) were the most likely to report having been diagnosed with depression. Fully 22 percent of women had been depressed.
Least likely to be depressed were men (13%), people making more the $60,000 a year (13%) and Asians (9%).
There's a good reason we remember the good old days. Gallup finds that 18-to-21-year-olds are the happiest of anyone. Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index found 79% of 18 to 21 year olds reported being happy yesterday.
Who's the least happy? People in their 50s and late 80s. The happiness indicator dropped to 70% during age 51-60, increased between 60 and the 70s, then to dropped again to 69% at age 86.
Women were slightly less happy than men at ages 18 to 20, but happier at the end of life. Why? "Most women who live full joyous lives at the end of their lives get beyond the superficial reasons we're happy when we're young," said Lili Aram, a Rocklin speech therapist and mother who is one of the happiest people most of her friends know.
"Whereas men dry up, women have an amazing winter bloom." For Aram, who has weathered some serious real life roadblocks, including a nasty divorce and family upheaval, the secret to happiness is loving relationships.
"You just have to cherish what is working in plain view, like your blessings of family life and friends," she said, "and keep focused on the blooms not the thorns."
Social scientist David Myers agrees. Humans, he notes, have a deep need to belong. People supported by intimate friendships or a committed marriage are much likelier to declare themselves “very happy.”
"The good life springs less from earning one’s first million than from loving and being loved, from developing the traits that mark happy lives, from finding connection and meaningful hope in faith communities, and from experiencing “flow” in work and recreation.," Myers said.
For more happy secrets check out Myers' book, The Pursuit of Happiness, (Avon) and his article, The Secrets of Happiness, http://www.yesmagazine.org/30goodlife/myers.htm
For survey details go to http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/301/
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