In a year that saw natural disasters, mass shootings and political upheaval, a healthy economy didn't seem to improve Americans' dispositions.
Many states witnessed declines in the 2017 Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, which measures how people feel about themselves. As a result, there was an overall national decline for the first time in the index's 10-year history, according to the survey, released last week.
Indiana's ranking improved, though it's still near the bottom.
Using measures of purpose, social interaction, financial security, community pride and health, the index attempts to help communities and businesses make decisions on health care and job productivity. The 2017 report is based on cellphone and landline interviews with a random sampling of 160,498 adults.
In a positive note, measures of physical health, such as increased exercise and decreased smoking, reached their highest levels last year, the survey found. And Americans who described themselves as thriving continues to grow, reaching 56.3 percent from 55.4 percent in 2016.
Still, the report calls 2017 “a challenging year for Americans' well-being.” The index is calculated on a scale of zero to 100, where zero represents the lowest well-being and 100 the highest. Last year's national score was 61.5, down from 62.1 in 2016. No state showed a statistically significant improvement from 2016, and 21 states declined.