WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The percentage of U.S. adults who evaluate their lives well enough to be considered "thriving" has dropped to 48.8%, the lowest level since the Great Recession in December 2008.
Today's thriving rate has edged down from 49.3% in early March and has declined by 6.5 percentage points since October's 55.3%, the most recent gauge before the start of the COVID-19 crisis.
It is the sixth-lowest percentage recorded in near-monthly measurements since January 2008. The lowest five all occurred in 2008.Gallup classifies Americans as "thriving," "struggling" or "suffering" according to how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10, based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale.