US Consumer Mood Index

Prosper provides support that the Consumer Mood Index is a leading indicator of key economic markers such as government housing starts, industrial production, real income, employment and real retail sales. The discovery is based on an ongoing in-depth review of several years of happiness data and longitudinal time-series data from multiple government sources. The Consumer Mood Index is based on how respondents rate their happiness level for ten different aspects of their lives. The top two box score (Happy/Totally Happy) is calculated for each and then an average of the top two box scores for all ten categories is calculated for each month. The Consumer Mood Index is an indicator of how overall consumer happiness has changed since the question was first asked in February 2010. An index greater than 100 means that happiness is up from the baseline, an index below 100 means that happiness is down from the baseline, and an index of 100 indicates that happiness has not changed from the baseline.