How Would You Describe Your Day Today?

by NRC on January 12, 2015

In the spring of 2014 Pew Research asked over 45,000 people around the globe this pretty innocuous question. In fact, it’s really just a throw away question, intended to ease respondents into the heavier stuff that follows. But wouldn’t you know it, the downbeat Europeans were not having such a good day. For the Europeans, in the spring of 2014, fewer were having a good day than were residents of Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, The U.S. or Africa. And that was before the plunge in the Euro or the attacks in Paris.

Don’t blame the economic hole that the Eurozone still finds too steep to escape. It’s, in fact, the poorer regions where most residents reported having a good day. More residents were having a good day in Nigeria than anywhere else surveyed. In fact the relationship between good days and good income was negative. Residents in most of the richest countries were not having the kind of good days that residents were in the poorest nations. Where are more people having good days, Bangladesh or Japan? Bangladesh! How about Nicaragua or the UK? Nicaragua.

Maybe an attitude of gratitude trumps low annual wages. Poor folks have learned to appreciate what little they have while the richer folks have become inured to wealth. Well, the U.S. subverts that theory because as the wealthiest nation surveyed, more U.S. residents report better days than residents in any of the other rich places and many of the poorer countries, too. For U.S. residents, there does seem to be an attitude of self-control and optimism that is absent in other wealthy countries surveyed, especially in Europe, which could propel respondents to feel that the day is good.

NRC, too, has found that wealth is not a certain predictor of resident opinion about quality of life in American cities. During the recession, ratings of overall quality of life and service delivery rose slightly, rather than fall as may be expected would happen with so many under a dark economic cloud.

As long as there's research like this coming from Pew, it’s a good day.