By Frank F Islam & Ed Crego, March 14, 2026 (Image credits: Tom de Boor, JNCGPT52)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

 — Declaration of Independence

One of the reasons for the founding of our nation was to enable its people to engage in the pursuit of happiness.

Through the centuries and decades since, the progress made in that pursuit has varied from individual to individual and group to group. And because of the evolving nature of our democratic republic, it has been generally affected by a number of factors including class, gender, and race.

Recent surveys indicate that in the U.S. today, happiness for Americans overall is declining rather than ascending. This raises the following questions.

What is happiness? Where do the U.S. and its citizens stand in terms of the pursuit of happiness today?

Happiness in Perspective

There is no single or universally accepted definition of happiness.

The founders of our country didn’t provide a definition of happiness in the Declaration of Independence. But by writing and adapting the Constitution — and the Bill of Rights, they put a national framework in place for citizens to work within, in its pursuit.

As we noted in an earlier blog, through the research for his book The Pursuit of Happiness, Jeffrey Rosen, CEO emeritus of the National Constitution Center, found that for many of the founders, happiness was not the pursuit of pleasure but of virtue, as defined by writers and philosophers such as Cicero, Epictetus, and John Locke.

In his article for The Atlantic based upon his book, Rosen writes:

By reading the books the Founders read and following their own daily attempts at self-accounting, I came better to understand the largely forgotten core of their moral and political philosophy: that moderating emotions is the secret of tranquility of mind; that tranquility of mind is the secret of happiness; that daily habits are the secret of self-improvement; and that personal self-government is the secret of political self-government.

Rosen provides excellent insights into the minds of the founders, who were well-educated members of the elite, and their pursuit of happiness. The question remains: what does happiness mean for people from across the spectrum today?

Martin Seligman, one of the founders of the field of positive psychology, advises that there are five fundamental components for a person’s well-being: Positive emotions, Engagement, good Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishments (PERMA). Seligman postulates that authentic happiness is comprised of three kinds: the pleasant life (pleasures); the good life (engagement); and the meaningful life. He also puts forward the following formula for happiness: H = S+C+V. Happiness equals your genetic set point plus the circumstances of your life, plus factors under voluntary control.

Daniel Kahneman, psychologist, who won the Nobel Prize for his work showing the links between economic theory and psychological research, found in 2010 that “high income buys life satisfaction, but not happiness, and that a person’s emotional well-being did not improve after they earned more than $75,000.”

In later research conducted jointly with Matthew Killingsworth, psychologist and director of trackyourhappiness org, and published in 2023, Kahneman and Killingsworth found that “on average, larger incomes are associated with ever increasing levels of happiness.” However, an unhappy cohort in each income group shows a sharp rise in happiness up to $100,000 annually and then plateaus.

In 2024, Killingsworth conducted new research, which revealed that

• Happiness “rose steadily at least up through incomes of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year,”
• High net worth individuals were “substantially and significantly happier than people earning over $500,000/year,” and
• The difference between wealthy and middle-income participants was nearly three times larger than the difference between the middle- and low-income participants.

Bottom line, based upon Killingsworth research, is that — with some exceptions — those with larger bottom lines tend to be happier, and that adequate money is one of the ingredients for happiness.

By contrast, Sophia Lyubomirsky, a psychologist who has published best-selling books on happiness, doesn’t focus on money at all. As Connie Pearson of the New York Times informs us, based upon her interview with Dr. Lyubomirsky:

Sonja Lyubomirsky has been a leading researcher on the science of happiness for decades. And for just as long, people have asked her: What is the secret?

Dr. Lyubomirsky, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California Riverside, has always chafed at this question. The secret to happiness? How ridiculous and reductive.

When pressed, she told me she tends to say something along the lines of: “Connection and relationships. Positive thinking, which includes gratitude. And a sense of control in your life.”

But if she really had to choose one thing, she said, the secret to happiness is “feeling loved.”

That’s the premise of her latest book, “How to Feel Loved,” which she co-wrote with Harry Reis, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, who studies close relationships.

Which of these definitions or explanations of happiness is correct? The answer is all of the above. As noted at the beginning of this section, there is no single or simple definition of happiness.

In fact, depending who the person is, there are a variety of factors that impact and influence one’s happiness including: micro-factors, such as personal, relational, and financial, and macro-factors, such as economic, social, cultural, and political.

Happiness of U.S. Citizens

Recent international research indicates that the citizens of the U.S. have become unhappier over the past decade or more, and are unhappier than citizens of other nations.

The 2025 World Happiness Report ranked the U.S. as the 24th happiest nation in the world — its lowest ranking ever. The best ranking for the U.S. was 11th in 2012. It fell to 23rd in 2024. (The new World Happiness Report will come out later this month. Given the current conditions in the country, it is very unlikely that our nation’s happiness ranking will improve)

The findings of the Social Progress Index (Index) for 2026 paralleled those of the World Happiness Report. Nicholas Kristof, in his New York Times column on the Index’s findings, titled “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Unhappiness,” reports:

In terms of quality of life, the United States ranks 32nd out of 171 countries, behind Poland, Lithuania, and Cyprus.

More alarming, the United States has fallen steadily in the rankings over the years, under Republican and Democratic presidents alike — and now seems poised to fall further because of cuts in health care and other services by President Trump.

Kristof points out that in terms of its performance on individual quality-of-life metrics, the U.S. ranked 99th in safety; 47th in K-12 education; and 45th in health.

In domestic research, A Pew Research Center study conducted in the summer of 2025 found that 45% of American adults would rather live in the past than in the present or future. Democrats and Democratic leaners were twice as likely to say they would prefer the past, as opposed to Republicans or Republican leaners.

The Pew study also disclosed similar difference in the responses by political party preference in how people felt about the future. 68% of U.S. adults said they feel hopeful. 60% said they feel scared. 54% said they feel happy. 50% said they feel sad. Republicans were more likely to say they feel hopeful and happy, and Democrats were more likely to say they were scared and sad.

In her article on the study’s findings, Jenn Hatfield points out that they are:

consistent with a broader pattern we see in which partisans feel better about the present and the future when their party is in power in Washington. For example, in a 2023 survey during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, we asked Americans about the future trajectories of the U.S. economy, the country’s global standing, and its political divides. In that survey, Republicans were more pessimistic than Democrats about each of these things.

The results from the 2025 Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index (WBI) were similar to those in the Pew Research Study. The WBI looks at “five interrelated elements that make up well-being: career, social, financial, physical, and community.

Dan Witters, research director of the WBI begins his article highlighting the 2025 survey findings, stating:

The percentage of U.S. adults who anticipate high-quality lives in five years declined to 59.2% in 2025. The lowest level since measurement began nearly two decades ago. Since 2020, future life ratings have fallen a total of 9.1 percentage points…

In his article, Witters notes that between 2021 to 2024, Black adults had the greatest erosion in optimism, due to the effects of inflation. That changed in 2025, with “steep drops in future life ratings among Hispanic and Democratic adults.” Democratic ratings went down by 7.6 points, Independent ratings went down by 1.5 points, and Republican ratings went up by 0.9 points.

In conclusion, the results achieved by individuals and groups in the pursuit of happiness in the United States of America has varied over time. The micro-economic issues of this decade — and the political and social divide — has made progress for many in their pursuit more difficult.

As stated in the Declaration of Independence, in 2026, the “pursuit of happiness” remains an “unalienable right.” The right remains, but the chances of achieving happiness appears to be diminishing for many.

This needs to be reversed. Our nation must be returned to being a place where happiness is achievable for the many rather than the few.