National Survey of Americans Gauges Levels of Happiness and Optimism

LAS VEGAS, Jan 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The results of a national telephone survey, conducted by Precision Opinion, of adults 18 and older found very high levels of personal happiness at the end of 2010, despite all the news and rhetoric and somewhat higher levels of optimism going into 2011.

"Americans proved themselves to be a resilient lot especially given the state of the economy, the nature of politics, levels of unemployment and the costs of wars, the citizenry clings to happiness and optimism in spite of it all," said James T. Medick, Founder and CEO of Precision Opinion, a prominent market research services firm.

Here's the breakdown:

Using a 10-point happiness scale

• 22% proclaimed when it came to happiness – they were a perfect 10
• Only 3% rated themselves a lowly one on the happiness scale.  In fact – the national happiness survey found only 9% would consider themselves unhappy (rating of 1 to 4)
• 9% were neutral
• An overwhelming percentage of 84% were on the happy side (rating 6 to 10)

The happiest group?

• Those 61 years of age and older with 32% being very happy (10)  
• Women were happier than men with 25% of the females very happy versus 19% for the guys
• Those who stated they were religious were more happy than those who were not with 25% of the religious group delivering a perfect 10 and only 12% of the non-believers were able to muster the perfect score
• Republicans are a happier bunch than Democrats with 27% of the Republicans rating their happiness as a 10 while only and 15% of the Democrats

Americans – in spite of all the news and rhetoric – when they looked back at 2010, we found:

• A whopping 61% of American's said their happiness increased while 39% saw it go the other way
• Interestingly it was the younger generations that saw their world get happier with 93% of those aged between 18 and 21 and 70% of those aged 22 to 30
• Over half – or 52% of those over 61 saw their happiness decrease – darn those young ones.

Looking ahead – when asked if they saw their personal level of happiness increasing in 2011, we found:

• Almost 9 out of 10 (88%) responded YES – it would increase  
• And the good news – the positive sentiment held true across all ages, genders, religious positioning, and yes, even over party lines

When asked if they were granted one wish – what would it be:

• The top three wishes were for world peace, happiness and good health
• Other wishes included the desire to win the lottery, make more money, see the economy get better, get government representatives to work in harmony and to end the war

About Precision Opinion

Precision Opinion is a market research services firm with a rich 20-year history in social science and other stringent research data collection disciplines.  This survey was conducted the last week of December 2010 using a national random digit dial telephone methodology and produced a margin of error of +/- 4.23% at a 95% confidence interval.

SOURCE Precision Opinion