Life Satisfaction

For Everyone

About

The CDC Mental Health Data Channel uses recent data to tell the story of mental health and well-being in the U.S. This page provides data on adult life satisfaction. Data comes from surveys that represent youth and adults at the state and national level and is available by age, sex, and race and ethnicity for recent years.
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What to know

  • Measures of overall well-being, such as life satisfaction, can help us understand how people view their own lives and well-being. 
  • Life satisfaction is defined as "the extent to which a person finds life rich, meaningful, full, or of high quality."1
  • Recent data shows the majority of U.S. adults report satisfaction with their lives.

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988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

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Resources for help

Adult life satisfaction data

National: Adult life satisfaction

By state: Adult life satisfaction

Why it matters

  • Improving well-being has been identified as a national priority by Healthy People 2030, a federal initiative that sets objectives to improve health over the current decade.
  • As part of these efforts, in 2021, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) began assessing Americans’ overall satisfaction with their lives. This measure is a starting point, and researchers are still working on improving defining and measuring well-being.2
  • Life satisfaction data can help researchers and policymakers assess how people view their own lives and well-being and resilience over time.3

Measuring life satisfaction

Healthy people 2030
The Overall Health and Well-Being Measures within Healthy People 2030 is a governmental effort to track population well-being, healthy life expectancy, and summary mortality and health in the U.S.

Explore original data source tools

Design elements from data systems
CDC supports national and state level data systems to help us understand mental health in the U.S. This page features data excerpted from select systems.
Keep Reading Mental Health Data Sources

Resources

Ready to take action?

CDC promotes a population health approach that addresses the drivers of well-being and mental distress. Individuals, organizations, and communities can adopt strategies to promote well-being and prevent mental health conditions before they develop or worsen.
Resources for Population Mental Health

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Content Source:
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
  1. American Psychological Association. (2022). APA Dictionary of Psychology - Life Satisfaction. https://dictionary.apa.org/life-satisfaction
  2. Hoyer, D., Ochiai, E., Blakey, C. (2024). Charting a National Path for Well-Being Through Healthy People 2030. Med Care. 62(12 Suppl 1), S27-S29. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000002034
  3. Hoyer, D., Ochiai, E., Blakey, C. (2024). Charting a National Path for Well-Being Through Healthy People 2030. Med Care. 62(12 Suppl 1), S27-S29. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000002034