Americans Are Proof That Money Can’t Buy Happiness, New Report Shows

“We are a nation of extremes—extreme successes and extreme failures,” according to the State of the Nation Project’s annual progress report released this month. “Our national trends are improving in more areas than we are declining. However, relative to other countries, the opposite is true—we are declining in more areas than we are improving.”

The report, championed by a group of scholars who fall on both lines of the political spectrum, lead in seven of the country’s think tanks, and have taken seats advising or working for the last five U.S. presidential administrations, examined 37 measures across 15 topic areas to quantify America’s well-being. Measures, researched by the scholars and informed by a sample of 1,000 U.S. adults, include Americans’ trust in government, trust in criminal justice systems, income inequality, violence, life satisfaction, social capital, mental health, family and child health, education, and work participation. 

The U.S. has the fastest-growing economy, outperforming 98% of other high-income countries in economic output and 88% of other high-income countries in productivity, the report found. However, overall life satisfaction in the U.S. is declining. For voter participation and the belief in democracy (a national declining trend), the country is underperforming most other countries assessed. In particular, trust in the federal government, police, and colleges and universities is declining in the U.S. 

“Almost two-thirds of high-income countries have more support for democracy than the United States,” according to the report. What’s more, the U.S. is among the worst middle- and high-income countries on depression and anxiety prevalence, faring worse than about 90% of other countries—and is the country reporting the world’s highest rate for fatal drug overdoses. For measures of child mortality, youth depression, and the percentage of children growing up in single-parent households, the U.S. is faring in the middle or worse compared to other high-income countries.

The findings are in line with last year’s World Happiness Report, in which the U.S. dropped out of the top 20, due in large part to young people’s declining mental well-being. “We’re so wealthy, but so unhappy,” Bradley Birzer, a historian at Hillsdale College in Michigan, tells the New York Times.

Ariel Kalil, an economist at the University of Chicago, told the Times there’s a false assumption that boosting the economy boosts well-being for all. 

The scholars explore the factors at play, including rising rates of social isolation and political polarization. 

The results were based on national averages, and the scholars also note that inequities across the country contribute to these findings, given that life satisfaction differs greatly depending on socioeconomic status, gender, race, and more. 

“While we have a very high average income, we continue to have among the most unequal incomes in the world,” the scholars conclude in their executive summary.