America’s emotional temperature

In 2018, Americans’ levels of stress, worry and anger increased over the previous year, by 6 percent, 5 percent and 5 percent, respectively. According to the 2019 Gallup Global Emotions Report, when asked if they’d experienced a lot of stress the previous day, 55 percent of participants said “yes.” That number is 20 points higher than the worldwide average, and trails only Greece (59), the Philippines (58) and Tanzania (57).

The “worry” gap between the U.S. and the world average was much smaller, with 45 percent of Americans having been worried the day before versus 39 percent worldwide. And as for anger, the U.S. matched the global average of 22 percent.

Contributing factors to all this negativity include disapproval of President Trump, as well as negative economic situations. Among the poorest 20 percent of Americans, nearly 70 percent experienced stress and 56 percent were worried. Comparatively, far fewer among the richest 20 percent reported feeling stressed (46 percent) or worried (41 percent).