Infographic: Which Americans Are Happiest?

Americans are generally happy, with marital status and income standing out as two of the most important components of their happiness, according to Chicago Booth’s Sam Peltzman. He analyzed nearly 50 years of data from the NORC at the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, which since 1972 has asked US adults about their happiness levels. Converting these responses into happiness scores and examining them across sociodemographic factors, he uncovered these findings, as well as some others. Among them: gender, age, and region had minimal influence on happiness levels, but race, education, place of residence, political ideology, and trust in government and others were consequential.