Trends and geographic variation in population thriving, struggling, and suffering across the US, 2008-2017: A retrospective repeated cross-sectional study

Objectives: Wellbeing is a holistic, positively framed conception of health, integrating physical, emotional, social, financial, community, and spiritual aspects of life. High wellbeing is an intrinsically worthy goal for individuals, communities, and nations. Multiple measures of wellbeing exist, yet we lack information to identify benchmarks, geographical disparities, and targets for intervention to improve population life evaluation.

Design: Using data from the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, we conducted retrospective analyses of a series of cross-sectional samples.

Setting/Participants: We summarized select wellbeing outcomes nationally for each year, and by county (N=599) over two time periods, 2008-2012 and 2013-2017.

Main Outcome Measures: We report percentages of peopole thriving, struggling, and suffering using the Cantril Self-Anchoring Scale, percentages reporting high or low current life satisfaction, percentages reporting high or low future life opti...