In response to the question, “In general, how happy do you feel?” (where 1 is very unhappy and 5 is very happy), general happiness rose from 60% in 2019 to 64% in 2021 (see Figure 1). Life satisfaction (defined as selecting 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale in agreement with the statement “I am satisfied with my life) rose even more steeply, from 58% in 2019 to 66% in 2021.

How is it possible that people’s average happiness and life satisfaction rose during the pandemic? We get a partial answer to this by examining which subgroups experienced the steepest increases compared with those whose happiness and satisfaction stayed flat or went down. One of the groups that fared the best is men— whose happiness and life satisfaction both rose sharply in contrast with women who only saw a rise in life satisfaction (see Table 1 in the Appendix for full details). Younger people also experienced higher rises in happiness and satisfaction, while those aged 55 to 74 experienced decreases in both areas. As is always the case with happiness and life satisfaction research, household income plays a strong role, not only giving higher-income homes an advantage to start out with but largely accounting for the increases in the total population, especially given the lowest-income group’s dipping happiness and unchanged life satisfaction (see Figure 2).