# Life evaluation and daily feelings: report

Chapter 6.3 of ZIP Code Destiny, by Vishal Singh (NYU Stern). Generated from the chapter's data files; the reading version is at https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings. Table n of this report is figure n of the chapter.

## Identification

- Title: Life evaluation and daily feelings
- Label: The ladder and the day
- Chapter: 6.3 (Part VI, Environment, connection and well-being; An American life)
- Question: How do people rate their lives and describe their days in richer and poorer places, and do the two measures move together?
- Dek: Gallup respondents in the most deprived tenth of counties rate their lives 0.24 ladder points lower than those in the least deprived tenth, a gap near zero or below at the same household income, characteristics and county rent.
- Grain: individuals
- Status: published
- Published: 2026-10-09
- Updated: not revised
- Data sources:
  - Gallup U.S. Daily Poll. Gallup U.S. Daily tracking poll: Cantril ladder now and in five years (2009-2017) and seven feelings yesterday (2008-2017), household income, age, sex, race and education; aggregates only; years: 2008-2017; weights: none (unweighted)
  - Area Deprivation Index. Area Deprivation Index 2023, national rank: tract ranks averaged to counties, and ZCTA ranks joined on the respondent's ZIP code; years: 2023 release (version 4.0.1; built on ACS 2019-2023); weights: 2019-2023 tract population for counties
  - American Community Survey. ACS 2019-2023 tract population, the weight for county deprivation; years: 2019-2023 (5-year); weights: 2019-2023 tract population
  - JEC Social Capital Index. County rate of deaths of despair for 2015 (CDC multiple cause of death), as compiled by the Joint Economic Committee for 1,341 larger counties: a cross-check series whose population base and age adjustment are not documented; years: 2018 release (components from about 2010-2016); weights: none (county rate)
  - CDC WONDER underlying cause of death. CDC WONDER underlying cause of death: county drug, alcohol and suicide counts and populations, 2018-2023, complete counties only, to check the JEC rate; years: 2018-2024; weights: none (crude rates from counts)
  - USALEEP life expectancy. Life expectancy at birth, 2010-2015 deaths, 2020 tracts: the canonical variance split among states, counties and tracts, quoted from the chapter that owns it; years: 2010-2015; weights: 2019-2023 tract population
  - Published estimates from cited studies. One estimate from the Moving to Opportunity experiment (Ludwig and coauthors 2012) and two income thresholds from Kahneman and Deaton (2010) and Killingsworth and coauthors (2023), quoted beside their citations; years: as reported in each study; weights: as in the papers
  - HUD Fair Market Rents. HUD Fair Market Rents, fiscal year 2025, two-bedroom, by FMR area averaged to counties: a stand-in for relative price levels in the interview years; years: fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025); weights: none (one rent per FMR area)
- Canonical URL: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings
- Report: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/report
- Markdown: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/report.md
- BibTeX key: singh2026lifeevaluationanddailyfeelings

```bibtex
@misc{singh2026lifeevaluationanddailyfeelings,
  author = {Singh, Vishal},
  title = {Life evaluation and daily feelings},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings},
  note = {In ZIP Code Destiny. Published 9 October 2026.}
}
```

## Principal estimates

The facts the dek and the opening prose cite, in order of appearance.

| Estimand | Population | Period | Value | Interval | n | Weights | Source | Fact id |
| --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- |
| difference between the unweighted mean ladder scores of the least and the most deprived tenth (county ADI is the mean of its tracts' ADI 2023 national ranks weighted by 2019-2023 tract population), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the two extreme tenths of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's county | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 0.24 | 95% CI 0.18 to 0.31 | 442,036 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll | ladder_drop_county |
| gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 0.13 | 95% CI 0.10 to 0.16 | 350,199 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll | ladder_gap_adj_county |
| gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, with a quintile of county rent also in the cells, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | −0.02 | 95% CI −0.05 to 0.00 | 350,199 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents | ladder_gap_rentq |
| difference between the unweighted shares reporting the feeling a lot of the day yesterday in the most and the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by county ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with an answer to the physical pain item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 8.8 | 95% CI 7.9 to 9.7 | 526,330 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll | gap_physical_pain |
| the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent and an answer to the physical pain item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 1.8 | 95% CI 1.4 to 2.3 | 412,916 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll | gap_adj_physical_pain |
| the pain gap after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, with a quintile of county rent also in the cells, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the pain item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews 2008 to 2017 | 1.2 | 95% CI 0.8 to 1.7 | 412,916 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents | pain_gap_rentq |
| correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), counties weighted by their respondents with the item, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | +0.65 | 95% CI 0.61 to 0.69 | 1,337 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll | r_des_pain |
| count of interviews in the extract (unweighted) | all interviews in the Gallup U.S. Daily extract | 2008 to 2017 | 3,530,270 |   |   | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll | n_interviews_all |

## Findings

Gallup respondents in the most deprived tenth of counties rated their lives 0.24 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.31) ladder points lower than respondents in the least deprived tenth. At the same nominal household income, and the same age, sex, race and education, the order reverses, and the most deprived tenth scores 0.13 (95% CI 0.10 to 0.16) points higher. Allowing for local rent levels removes that difference. With a quintile of county rent added to the comparison it becomes −0.02 (95% CI −0.05 to 0.00) points, so these data cannot separate a place difference from a price difference.

Daily feelings behave differently from the ladder. Physical pain was more common in the most deprived tenth of counties by 8.8 (95% CI 7.9 to 9.7) points, by 1.8 (95% CI 1.4 to 2.3) points at the same characteristics and nominal income, and by 1.2 (95% CI 0.8 to 1.7) points with county rent also allowed for. Stress, in contrast, was less common there. Across larger counties, weighting each county by its respondents, the share reporting pain correlates +0.65 (95% CI 0.61 to 0.69) with the county rate of deaths of despair. That is the highest of the seven feelings under every weighting and comparison this chapter tries.

The data are the Gallup U.S. Daily survey: 3,530,270 interviews from 2008 to 2017, one row per interview, with new respondents every year and no one followed over time. The extract has no survey weights, so every figure is unweighted and levels can differ from the weighted figures Gallup publishes. The unit of this chapter is the person. The deprivation measures describe the county or ZIP area where the person lives, so a comparison between tenths of places is partly a comparison between kinds of people. Every interval is a 95% interval clustered by the respondent's county.

### Two kinds of question about a life

The Cantril ladder asks respondents to place their life on a ladder whose bottom rung is the worst possible life and whose top rung is the best possible one.[1] It records a judgment of a life as a whole, which is why this chapter calls it life evaluation. The extract holds that ladder and a second one for where the respondent expects to stand in the future, which this chapter calls the expected ladder. Gallup also asked whether respondents experienced each of seven feelings during a lot of the day yesterday: enjoyment, happiness, worry, stress, sadness, anger and physical pain. Those answers record a day, not a life, and the chapter calls them daily feelings. The two kinds of measure are analyzed side by side and never combined into one index.

Not every item was asked in every year (Table 1). Both ladder items are used for 2009 to 2017. In 2008 political questions preceded the ladder, which makes life evaluation run low, and Gallup removed them for part of the sample in early January 2009 and added a transition question in April 2009.[2] The feelings are not affected and start in 2008. Enjoyment, worry, stress and pain run to 2017, happiness and sadness stop after 2016, and anger was asked from 2008 to 2013 and again in 2016. The ladder reached 85% of the interviews in 2009 and 49% of those from 2013 to 2017, when each item went to a subsample, so the pooled ladder figures weight 2009 to 2012 most. The ladder is present in 2,217,485 interviews that also have a county.

Table 1. The ladder runs from 2009 to 2017 and the feelings from 2008, but happiness and sadness stop after 2016 and anger was not asked in 2014, 2015 or 2017

Place is attached to each respondent before any aggregation, and only aggregates are published. The county comes from the respondent's ZIP code and is approximate near county lines. 10,731 of the 3,530,270 interviews have no county and are dropped, which leaves 3,519,539 interviews in 3,142 counties. County deprivation is the mean of the Area Deprivation Index national ranks of the county's tracts, weighted by tract population, where a higher rank means more deprived. 784 interviews are in counties with no index.

ZIP-area deprivation is the index for the ZCTA that carries the ZIP code's number. A ZIP code is not a ZCTA and Connecticut has no ZCTAs in the project files, so this measure covers 97.6% of the interviews. Respondents are cut into tenths of each deprivation measure, so each tenth holds about a tenth of the interviews. Household income is the respondent's reported bracket, in nominal dollars, available for 81% of the interviews.

### The ladder falls with deprivation and reverses only at the same nominal income

Across tenths of county deprivation the mean ladder score falls from 7.17 (95% CI 7.11 to 7.23) in the least deprived tenth to 6.93 (95% CI 6.91 to 6.94) in the most deprived, and the point estimates fall from each tenth to the next (Table 2). The tenths are tenths of interviews, not of counties. The least deprived holds interviews from 45 counties and the most deprived from 1,205.

The ZIP-area measure gives a longer fall, from 7.29 (95% CI 7.24 to 7.34) to 6.87 (95% CI 6.85 to 6.88), a drop of 0.42 (95% CI 0.37 to 0.48) points against 0.24 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.31) for counties. A finer unit of place separates respondents further. Chapter 8.4, Place and the length of a life (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/place-and-the-length-of-a-life) draws the corresponding gradient in life expectancy for tracts.

Table 2. The ladder score is 0.24 points lower in the most deprived tenth of counties, 0.13 points higher at the same nominal household income and other characteristics, and −0.02 once county rent levels also enter

The tenths differ in who lives in them. The second and third tabs of the figure compare respondents only with others in the same cell of five-year age band, sex, race, education and household income bracket, using one sample at every step, the 1,759,964 interviews that report every one of those characteristics and a county rent. Education has three levels and ages above the oldest band share it. Comparing within cells of age and sex leaves the county gap at −0.30 (95% CI −0.36 to −0.23) points, close to its starting value of −0.27 (95% CI −0.34 to −0.21) on the same interviews. Adding education narrows it to −0.11 (95% CI −0.15 to −0.07), adding race and ethnicity changes it little, and adding household income turns it to +0.13 (95% CI 0.10 to 0.16).

In that comparison the adjusted mean ladder score is 7.10 (95% CI 7.08 to 7.11) in the most deprived tenth and 6.97 (95% CI 6.94 to 7.00) in the least deprived, so the ladder is 0.13 (95% CI 0.10 to 0.16) points higher in the most deprived tenth. The ZIP-area measure follows the same steps, from −0.21 (95% CI −0.25 to −0.17) with education to 0.07 (95% CI 0.04 to 0.10) higher with income. With a six-level education item the final gap is 0.13 (95% CI 0.10 to 0.16).

The last step assumes that one nominal bracket means one standard of living in every county, and the data do not support that. The interviews in the least deprived tenth come from counties where the HUD two-bedroom Fair Market Rent averages $2,697 (95% CI $2,594 to $2,800) a month, against $943 (95% CI $932 to $953) in the most deprived tenth. The rents are for fiscal year 2025 and stand in for relative price levels in 2008 to 2017, and counties in a metro share one value.

With a quintile of county rent added to the cells the gap is −0.02 (95% CI −0.05 to 0.00) points, and with the logarithm of rent as a linear control it is −0.04 (95% CI −0.07 to −0.01). At the ZIP-area scale the quintile version gives −0.06 (95% CI −0.09 to −0.03). Counting each county once, instead of each interview, gives +0.02 (95% CI −0.03 to 0.07). The sign of the reversal therefore depends on prices and on weighting, and the data cannot separate a place difference from a price difference.

Leaving the 2008 ladder in changes none of this. With it, the county drop is 0.26 (95% CI 0.19 to 0.33), the nominal-income gap +0.12 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.15), the rent-quintile gap −0.03 (95% CI −0.06 to 0.00) and the pooled income slope 0.256 (95% CI 0.252 to 0.259).

This comparison does not say that places have no bearing on how people rate their lives. Household income is one of the things a deprived place has less of, and the deprivation index is itself built from income, education, employment and housing, so comparing respondents within an income bracket removes part of what the index measures. In these data the ladder gradient across places is gone once respondents are compared with others of the same education and income, and whether a gap of the opposite sign remains depends on the price of living.

### Daily feelings follow place less evenly than the ladder

The seven feelings do not share one gradient (Table 3). Physical pain was reported by 20.8% (95% CI 20.0% to 21.7%) of respondents in the least deprived tenth of counties and 29.6% (95% CI 29.2% to 30.0%) in the most deprived, a gap of 8.8 (95% CI 7.9 to 9.7) points. The gap is 11.0 (95% CI 10.3 to 11.7) points when places are tenths of ZIP areas. Apart from pain, no feeling differs by more than 2.1 points between the extreme tenths.

Sadness differs by 1.9 (95% CI 0.7 to 3.2) points and stress by −2.1 (95% CI −3.1 to −1.2) points, so sadness is more common in the most deprived tenth and stress is less common there. Enjoyment differs by −1.2 (95% CI −2.1 to −0.4), happiness by −0.6 (95% CI −1.4 to 0.2), worry by −1.1 (95% CI −2.3 to 0.2) and anger by −0.7 (95% CI −1.7 to 0.3).

Table 3. Physical pain is 8.8 percentage points more common in the most deprived tenth of counties, the largest gap of the seven feelings, and 1.8 at the same characteristics and 1.2 with county rent also allowed for

Comparing respondents within cells at nominal income shrinks the pain gap to 1.8 (95% CI 1.4 to 2.3) points, so that 80% (95% CI 77% to 84%) of the raw gap lines up with who lives in each tenth, and the remainder keeps its direction.

The other gaps change as well. Sadness becomes −1.7 (95% CI −2.4 to −1.0) points, worry moves from −1.1 (95% CI −2.3 to 0.2) to −3.7 (95% CI −4.6 to −2.8), anger to −1.3 (95% CI −1.9 to −0.6), and stress stays below zero at −2.3 (95% CI −3.0 to −1.6).

Enjoyment and happiness move above zero, to 1.6 (95% CI 1.0 to 2.2) and 1.8 (95% CI 1.2 to 2.4). Those reversals are the nominal-income reversals of the ladder, and they go with it when county rent is allowed for. With rent allowed for, the pain gap becomes 1.2 (95% CI 0.8 to 1.7) points, 1.1 (95% CI 0.6 to 1.5) with the logarithm of rent as the control and 1.7 (95% CI 1.1 to 2.3) with each county counted once.

No other gap is above zero once rent is allowed for. Enjoyment is −0.7, happiness −0.5, worry 0.5, stress 0.4, sadness 0.5 and anger 0.4, each within a point of zero. Stress is less common in the most deprived tenth as interviewed and at nominal income, and these data do not say why.

### The ladder rises more steeply with income than the day does

The ladder score rises from 6.28 (95% CI 6.26 to 6.29) in the poorest household income bracket to 7.60 (95% CI 7.59 to 7.61) in the richest (Table 4). To compare slopes across items, the figure scales each item by its own standard deviation.

In those units the richest bracket sits 0.68 (95% CI 0.67 to 0.69) above the poorest on the ladder, against −0.51 (95% CI −0.52 to −0.50) for pain, −0.48 (95% CI −0.49 to −0.48) for sadness, −0.34 (95% CI −0.35 to −0.33) for worry and 0.37 (95% CI 0.37 to 0.38) for enjoyment. Stress differs by only −0.12 (95% CI −0.13 to −0.11).

Stress is common in the poorest bracket, 43.6% (95% CI 43.4% to 43.9%) of respondents against 37.7% (95% CI 37.3% to 38.0%) in the richest, and varies by at most 2.3 points across the other five brackets. Pain falls from 37.8% (95% CI 37.4% to 38.3%) of respondents in the poorest bracket to 16.1% (95% CI 15.9% to 16.3%) in the richest.

Table 4. The richest income bracket scores 0.68 standard deviations above the poorest on the ladder and −0.51 on physical pain, but only −0.12 on stress

Kahneman and Deaton found a similar split in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Life evaluation kept rising with the logarithm of income, while a measure of emotional well-being rose with income and showed no further progress above about $75,000 a year.[3] Killingsworth, Kahneman and Mellers later reconciled that result with experience-sampling data in which well-being kept rising with income for most people and flattened above about $100,000 a year only for an unhappy minority.[4] The top bracket in the Gallup extract starts at $90,000, so these data cannot show whether any item flattens at higher incomes.

The expected ladder rises with income as the ladder now does, from 6.98 (95% CI 6.95 to 7.02) in the poorest bracket to 8.11 (95% CI 8.10 to 8.12) in the richest. Graham and Pinto, using Gallup surveys, report that optimism differs most by race and place among low-income Americans.[5]

### The income gradient is nearly the same in every kind of county

The ladder's income gradient is nearly the same in all three bands of county deprivation (Table 5). Across all respondents the ladder rises 0.250 (95% CI 0.246 to 0.253) points for each step up the six income brackets. With county fixed effects, which compare each respondent only with others in the same county, it rises 0.251 (95% CI 0.247 to 0.255) points per step. Within any one income bracket, the three bands of counties differ by at most 0.12 points in the mean ladder score. In the poorest bracket the most deprived three tenths of counties score −0.09 (95% CI −0.13 to −0.05) points relative to the least deprived three tenths, and in the richest bracket 0.03 (95% CI 0.01 to 0.05).

Table 5. The income gradient of the ladder is nearly the same in all three bands of counties, 0.250 points per bracket across respondents and 0.251 within counties

Counties hold very little of the variation. The share of the variance in the ladder score that lies between counties, with states included, is 0.51% (95% CI 0.46% to 0.56%), and the rest lies between people in the same county. Chapter 10.1, Gradients, slopes and variance (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/gradients-slopes-and-variance) splits the variance of tract life expectancy, where states hold 13.7% and counties within states 15.9%, together 29.7% (the parts are rounded). The two shares are not strictly comparable, because a tract mean averages many people and a ladder score is one person's answer, so the county share of life expectancy would fall if it were measured for people.

Pain separates the bands, mostly among the poorest. In the poorest bracket pain is 6.6 (95% CI 5.7 to 7.5) points more common in the most deprived three tenths of counties than in the least deprived three tenths, and in the richest bracket 1.7 (95% CI 1.2 to 2.1) points.

> Causal evidence: Whether an offer to move to a less poor neighborhood changes how happy adults say they are (Randomized housing-voucher experiment)
>
> The comparisons above are between different people, so they cannot say what a place does to the people in it. The Moving to Opportunity experiment assigned low-income families in public housing in five cities, by lottery, to be offered a voucher usable only in a lower-poverty neighborhood, to be offered an unrestricted voucher, or to stay where they were. Ludwig and coauthors surveyed the adults a decade or more later. Pooled over the two voucher groups, the offer of a move to a less disadvantaged area raised a standardized answer to one question about how happy things are these days by 0.098 (95% CI 0.022 to 0.174) standard deviations, with no detectable change in adult economic self-sufficiency.[6]
>
> That is the effect of an offer, not of a move, on one happiness question asked of adults who began in public housing in very poor neighborhoods, and the estimate is small. It shows that an offer to move to a lower-poverty neighborhood can change a self-reported well-being measure without changing income. It does not cover the ladder or daily feelings, and it does not say how much of the gradient across Gallup counties is a place effect.

### The ladder and the day move together, more tightly across counties

Respondents who reported happiness during a lot of the day yesterday rated their lives 1.57 (95% CI 1.55 to 1.59) ladder points higher than those who did not, and respondents who reported enjoyment rated them 1.46 (95% CI 1.44 to 1.47) higher (Table 6). Those who reported sadness rated their lives 1.33 (95% CI 1.32 to 1.35) points lower, and those who reported physical pain 0.91 (95% CI 0.90 to 0.93) lower.

Correlations are smaller than these gaps suggest, since enjoyment was reported by 86% of respondents and sadness by only 17%. Across respondents the ladder correlates +0.26 (95% CI 0.26 to 0.26) with enjoyment, −0.28 (95% CI −0.28 to −0.28) with worry, the strongest of the seven, −0.20 (95% CI −0.20 to −0.20) with pain and −0.18 (95% CI −0.18 to −0.18) with anger, the weakest.

Table 6. Across respondents the ladder correlates −0.28 with worry and +0.26 with enjoyment, and across county means it moves together with most feelings more tightly

Across counties the pairs move together more tightly. The county mean ladder correlates +0.59 (95% CI 0.56 to 0.63) with the county share reporting enjoyment, −0.62 (95% CI −0.66 to −0.58) with pain, −0.57 (95% CI −0.61 to −0.53) with sadness and −0.20 (95% CI −0.26 to −0.14) with stress, the one feeling whose county correlation is not larger than its correlation across respondents. County means need at least 100 respondents with each item. Averaging to counties removes variation between people, and a stronger correlation between averages is the usual result of doing so. It says nothing about how closely any one person's life rating and day are linked.

The measures also differ in what they follow. The ladder rises with income more steeply than any feeling does, and pain tracks both income and county deprivation, while stress follows neither much. The ladder answers a question about a life and the feelings answer a question about a day, and they share a direction without sharing a shape. Chapter 6.2, Civic life, loneliness and partnership (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/civic-life-loneliness-and-partnership) uses the same ladder to compare partnered and other adults, and Chapter 6.4, Well-being across the life span (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/well-being-across-the-life-span) takes up how the ladder and the feelings change with age, which this chapter holds fixed.

### Pain is the feeling that tracks county deaths of despair

Felt despair is not an item in the Gallup survey. This chapter reads it from the items Gallup does ask: the pain, sadness, worry and stress that respondents reported for yesterday, and the ladder now and the expected ladder. The comparison is with the county rate of deaths of despair for 2015, from the Joint Economic Committee's compilation of CDC data for larger counties. Deaths of despair, in Case and Deaton's term, are deaths from suicide, drugs and alcohol.[7] Case and Deaton documented rising reports of chronic pain alongside rising mortality from suicide, drugs and alcohol among middle-aged white non-Hispanic Americans from 1999 to 2013.[8] Chapter 8.2, Overdose, alcohol and suicide (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/overdose-alcohol-and-suicide) maps the deaths themselves.

The Joint Economic Committee's file keeps the 2015 rate as a cross-check series, and it does not document the rate's population base or whether it is age adjusted. It is used here because it is the only county rate from the Gallup years, and it can be checked against CDC WONDER. The check uses the complete counties of the chapter on overdose, alcohol and suicide, those whose drug, alcohol and suicide counts are published in every year from 2018 to 2023. On those counties the two rates correlate +0.81 (95% CI 0.77 to 0.84) across 534 counties, weighted by respondents. The WONDER rate sums three crude rates, includes suicides by drug poisoning in both the drug and the suicide rate, and comes a decade after the interviews.

The county share reporting pain correlates +0.69 (95% CI 0.64 to 0.74) with the Joint Economic Committee rate on those counties and +0.58 (95% CI 0.51 to 0.64) with the WONDER rate, and the share reporting stress −0.14 (95% CI −0.23 to −0.05) with the WONDER rate.

Respondents in the lowest fifth of the county rate reported physical pain at 20.2% (95% CI 19.8% to 20.6%) and respondents in the highest fifth at 26.8% (95% CI 26.3% to 27.3%), a difference of 6.6 (95% CI 6.0 to 7.3) points, and the share rises at each step (Table 7).

The ladder falls from 7.15 (95% CI 7.12 to 7.18) to 7.00 (95% CI 6.98 to 7.02). The share reporting stress hardly moves, 37.4% (95% CI 36.9% to 37.9%) in the lowest fifth and 36.4% (95% CI 36.1% to 36.8%) in the highest.

Table 7. Physical pain is the feeling most closely tied to the county deaths-of-despair rate under every weighting and comparison, with a correlation of +0.65 across counties

The second tab compares county averages with the rate in 1,337 larger counties. With counties weighted by their respondents, the county share reporting pain correlates +0.65 (95% CI 0.61 to 0.69) with the rate, the ladder now −0.40 (95% CI −0.47 to −0.33), the expected ladder −0.54 (95% CI −0.60 to −0.49) and sadness +0.31 (95% CI 0.20 to 0.41).

Worry (+0.06 (95% CI −0.05 to 0.17)) and stress (−0.09 (95% CI −0.17 to −0.01)) barely correlate under that weighting. Counting each county once changes that. Worry rises to +0.36 (95% CI 0.29 to 0.45), stress to +0.19 (95% CI 0.11 to 0.28) and sadness to +0.45 (95% CI 0.39 to 0.52), while pain remains the strongest at +0.58 (95% CI 0.54 to 0.63). Correlations that give every county equal weight are dominated by the many small counties, and those weighted by respondents by the large ones. The statement that stress and worry do not follow the despair map therefore holds for the counties where most respondents live and not for all counties.

County averages also mix places with people. Respondents in the highest fifth of the rate average 55.5 (95% CI 55.1 to 56.0) years of age against 51.9 (95% CI 51.3 to 52.5) in the lowest. Comparing respondents within cells of age and sex before averaging to counties leaves the pain correlation at +0.62 (95% CI 0.58 to 0.66), so age and sex do not account for it.

Comparing within cells of age, sex, race, education and household income brings it to +0.43 (95% CI 0.38 to 0.48), still the highest of the feelings and the only negative feeling whose interval stays above zero. The correlation of the ladder changes sign to +0.14 (95% CI 0.07 to 0.22) in that comparison, which includes household income and education, while the comparison on age and sex alone leaves it at −0.47 (95% CI −0.53 to −0.40). Pain remains tied to the county rate of deaths of despair after respondents are compared on age, sex, race, education and household income, and no other negative feeling does.

### The ladder gradient follows all four rankings of counties

Over the 3,121 counties that have every ranking, the ADI baseline gives a ladder score of 7.17 (95% CI 7.11 to 7.23) in the least deprived tenth of interviews and 6.93 (95% CI 6.91 to 6.94) in the most deprived, with a rank correlation of −0.98 between tenth and mean (Table 8). Under the standardized index, which applies the ADI's coefficients after standardizing each of its measures, the score runs from 7.22 (95% CI 7.19 to 7.25) to 6.94 (95% CI 6.92 to 6.96) with a correlation of −1.00. Ranking counties by median household income gives 7.22 (95% CI 7.19 to 7.24) and 6.94 (95% CI 6.92 to 6.95) (−1.00), and ranking them by the bachelor's degree share gives 7.24 (95% CI 7.21 to 7.26) and 6.90 (95% CI 6.89 to 6.92) (−0.96). Under the rule of Chapter 9.1, How far one ranking goes (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/how-far-one-ranking-goes) none of the three counts as a change, since the ends differ under each ranking and every correlation stays beyond 0.9 in absolute value.

Table 8. The ladder score is steadily worse toward the more deprived end under the ADI and under each of the three other rankings

### What these data cannot show

The unit of the chapter is the person, but the place measures describe counties and ZIP areas, so a gap between tenths of places mixes the places with the people in them. Comparing respondents within cells handles only the characteristics the survey records. It does not handle health, disability, work or family, which go with pain. Household income is in nominal dollars and the rent file is a single fiscal year 2025 standard shared within metros, so the price comparison is a rough proxy, and neither it nor the nominal comparison identifies what places do to residents. The randomized Moving to Opportunity experiment is the evidence on that question, and it covers neither the ladder nor these feelings.

The survey has no weights, and the interviews are a repeated cross-section, not a panel, so the chapter shows differences between people and not changes within them. Pooled figures weight 2009 to 2012 most for the ladder and 2008 to 2012 for the feelings, and the chapter does not remove differences between years. Each feeling is a yes or no answer to whether the respondent had it during a lot of the day yesterday, which records neither intensity nor duration, and the ladder is a whole-number rating whose rungs different people may anchor differently. Answers given in one interview can color each other, as the 2008 ladder shows, and the survey cannot separate that for the other items.

The county is derived from the ZIP code and is approximate near county lines. ZIP-area deprivation treats a ZIP code as the ZCTA of the same number and drops Connecticut. County deprivation is built from Area Deprivation Index ranks that include income and education, so the index overlaps with the respondent characteristics used in the comparisons. The index is the 2023 release, built on ACS data for 2019 to 2023, and the interviews are from 2008 to 2017, which assumes that the ranking of places persisted. The deaths-of-despair rate is a single year for larger counties, a cross-check series with an undocumented population base and age adjustment, and its correlations are across counties, so they do not show that the people who report pain are the people who die.

Chapter 4.5, Mental distress in young adults (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/mental-distress-in-young-adults) measures frequent mental distress in a different survey with survey weights, and its estimates are not directly comparable with the unweighted Gallup levels here.

## Tables

### Table 1. The ladder runs from 2009 to 2017 and the feelings from 2008, but happiness and sadness stop after 2016 and anger was not asked in 2014, 2015 or 2017

Gallup U.S. Daily items used in this chapter: the years each was asked, interviews with a county and an answer, and the share of the interviews in those years that carry the item

| Item | Kind | Years asked | Interviews with an answer | Share of interviews in those years (%) |
| --- | --- | --- | ---: | ---: |
| Ladder now | Life evaluation | 2009 to 2017 | 2,217,485 | 70 |
| Ladder in five years | Life evaluation | 2009 to 2017 | 2,124,998 | 67 |
| Enjoyment | Positive feeling | 2008 to 2017 | 2,625,590 | 75 |
| Happiness | Positive feeling | 2008 to 2016 | 2,464,754 | 78 |
| Worry | Negative feeling | 2008 to 2017 | 2,629,572 | 75 |
| Stress | Negative feeling | 2008 to 2017 | 2,629,276 | 75 |
| Sadness | Negative feeling | 2008 to 2016 | 2,469,420 | 78 |
| Anger | Negative feeling | 2008 to 2013 and 2016 | 2,099,828 | 85 |
| Physical pain | Negative feeling | 2008 to 2017 | 2,629,184 | 75 |

Note: The 2008 ladder answers are left out: political questions preceded the ladder in 2008 and the 2008 ladder runs low (Deaton 2012). Gallup removed the political questions for part of the sample in early January 2009 and added a transition question in April 2009. The feelings are not affected.

Note: Happiness and anger each have a few stray answers in years when the item was not asked; they are dropped.

Note: Feelings are answers to whether the respondent experienced the feeling during a lot of the day yesterday. The two ladder items are scored 0 to 10; the second asks where the respondent expects to stand in about five years.

Source: Gallup U.S. Daily, ladder 2009-2017 and feelings 2008-2017; unweighted counts of interviews with a county

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/item_coverage.json

### Table 2. The ladder score is 0.24 points lower in the most deprived tenth of counties, 0.13 points higher at the same nominal household income and other characteristics, and −0.02 once county rent levels also enter

Mean Cantril ladder score by decile of the deprivation of the respondent's county and ZIP area, as interviewed and after comparing respondents within cells, with the gap at each step

#### Table 2.1. As interviewed

The ladder score falls from 7.17 to 6.93 across deciles of county deprivation and from 7.29 to 6.87 across deciles of ZIP-area deprivation

Unweighted mean Cantril ladder score by decile of the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's county and of the respondent's ZIP area, Gallup U.S. Daily interviews 2009 to 2017

| conf_high | conf_low | decile | estimate | n | n_units | place |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- |
| 7.23 | 7.11 | 1 | 7.17 | 218,776 | 45 | County deprivation |
| 7.17 | 7.09 | 2 | 7.13 | 220,210 | 85 | County deprivation |
| 7.15 | 7.08 | 3 | 7.11 | 225,715 | 110 | County deprivation |
| 7.14 | 7.07 | 4 | 7.10 | 215,982 | 134 | County deprivation |
| 7.12 | 7.07 | 5 | 7.10 | 220,790 | 168 | County deprivation |
| 7.12 | 7.06 | 6 | 7.09 | 223,139 | 198 | County deprivation |
| 7.08 | 7.03 | 7 | 7.06 | 222,438 | 266 | County deprivation |
| 7.06 | 7.02 | 8 | 7.04 | 223,727 | 350 | County deprivation |
| 7.00 | 6.96 | 9 | 6.98 | 222,937 | 563 | County deprivation |
| 6.94 | 6.91 | 10 | 6.93 | 223,260 | 1,205 | County deprivation |
| 7.34 | 7.24 | 1 | 7.29 | 213,516 | 203 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.24 | 7.15 | 2 | 7.20 | 215,235 | 343 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.19 | 7.13 | 3 | 7.16 | 217,052 | 465 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.15 | 7.10 | 4 | 7.13 | 217,305 | 614 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.12 | 7.08 | 5 | 7.10 | 216,938 | 767 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.07 | 7.03 | 6 | 7.05 | 217,457 | 964 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.04 | 7.01 | 7 | 7.03 | 217,491 | 1,197 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.00 | 6.97 | 8 | 6.98 | 217,224 | 1,451 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 6.93 | 6.91 | 9 | 6.92 | 217,621 | 1,656 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 6.88 | 6.85 | 10 | 6.87 | 217,263 | 1,806 | ZIP-area deprivation |

#### Table 2.2. Same characteristics

Among respondents of the same age, sex, race, education and nominal household income, the ladder score is 7.10 in the most deprived county decile and 6.97 in the least

Mean ladder score after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band, sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, by decile of county and ZIP-area deprivation, 2009 to 2017

| conf_high | conf_low | decile | estimate | n | n_units | place |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- |
| 7.00 | 6.94 | 1 | 6.97 | 173,060 | 44 | County deprivation |
| 6.99 | 6.93 | 2 | 6.96 | 175,650 | 85 | County deprivation |
| 7.01 | 6.97 | 3 | 6.99 | 179,718 | 109 | County deprivation |
| 7.03 | 6.98 | 4 | 7.00 | 171,208 | 134 | County deprivation |
| 7.04 | 6.99 | 5 | 7.01 | 174,311 | 168 | County deprivation |
| 7.06 | 7.03 | 6 | 7.05 | 177,633 | 198 | County deprivation |
| 7.07 | 7.03 | 7 | 7.05 | 176,592 | 266 | County deprivation |
| 7.08 | 7.05 | 8 | 7.07 | 177,789 | 350 | County deprivation |
| 7.09 | 7.05 | 9 | 7.07 | 176,681 | 563 | County deprivation |
| 7.11 | 7.08 | 10 | 7.10 | 177,139 | 1,205 | County deprivation |
| 7.02 | 6.97 | 1 | 6.99 | 169,075 | 199 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.01 | 6.97 | 2 | 6.99 | 172,355 | 337 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.02 | 6.99 | 3 | 7.00 | 174,458 | 454 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.02 | 6.99 | 4 | 7.01 | 174,430 | 607 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.04 | 7.01 | 5 | 7.03 | 174,417 | 755 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.04 | 7.01 | 6 | 7.03 | 174,768 | 954 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.06 | 7.04 | 7 | 7.05 | 174,854 | 1,179 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.06 | 7.04 | 8 | 7.05 | 174,142 | 1,432 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.07 | 7.04 | 9 | 7.05 | 174,544 | 1,632 | ZIP-area deprivation |
| 7.08 | 7.05 | 10 | 7.06 | 174,290 | 1,781 | ZIP-area deprivation |

#### Table 2.3. Gap after each adjustment

The ladder gap between the most and least deprived county tenth narrows to −0.11 with education, turns to +0.13 with nominal household income and is −0.02 once county rent levels enter

Difference in mean ladder score, most deprived minus least deprived tenth of interviews, after successive comparisons within cells of respondent characteristics, 2009 to 2017

| conf_high | conf_low | estimate | n | n_units | place | step |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
| −0.205 | −0.335 | −0.270 | 350,199 | 1,249 | County deprivation | No adjustment |
| −0.234 | −0.360 | −0.297 | 350,199 | 1,249 | County deprivation | Same age and sex |
| −0.069 | −0.151 | −0.110 | 350,199 | 1,249 | County deprivation | Plus education |
| −0.039 | −0.134 | −0.087 | 350,199 | 1,249 | County deprivation | Plus race and ethnicity |
| 0.157 | 0.099 | 0.128 | 350,199 | 1,249 | County deprivation | Plus household income |
| 0.004 | −0.054 | −0.025 | 350,199 | 1,249 | County deprivation | Plus county rent level |
| −0.394 | −0.499 | −0.446 | 343,365 | 1,917 | ZIP-area deprivation | No adjustment |
| −0.413 | −0.515 | −0.464 | 343,365 | 1,917 | ZIP-area deprivation | Same age and sex |
| −0.166 | −0.250 | −0.208 | 343,365 | 1,917 | ZIP-area deprivation | Plus education |
| −0.156 | −0.243 | −0.200 | 343,365 | 1,917 | ZIP-area deprivation | Plus race and ethnicity |
| 0.102 | 0.040 | 0.071 | 343,365 | 1,917 | ZIP-area deprivation | Plus household income |
| −0.034 | −0.092 | −0.063 | 343,365 | 1,917 | ZIP-area deprivation | Plus county rent level |

Note: Gallup's extract has no survey weights, so every estimate is unweighted and levels can differ from the weighted figures Gallup publishes. County comes from the respondent's ZIP code and is approximate near county lines. The ladder is the evaluative measure and the feelings are experiential measures; they are never combined into one index.

Note: Deciles are cut once on every interview that has the deprivation measure, so each holds about a tenth of interviews and every item uses the same cut points. County deprivation is the mean of the tract Area Deprivation Index national ranks (1 = least deprived), weighted by tract population. The ZIP code is treated as the ZCTA of the same number, whose index is an area-weighted approximation; Connecticut has no ZCTAs in the project files and drops out of the ZIP-area line.

Note: The second and third tabs use one sample at every step, the interviews that report age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent. Education has three levels and ages above the oldest five-year band share it. Household income is in nominal dollars and does not reflect differences in the cost of living across counties; the top bracket has no upper limit.

Note: The rent step adds a quintile of the county's HUD two-bedroom Fair Market Rent for fiscal year 2025, which stands in for relative price levels in the interview years. Counties in a metro share the metro's rent. Where the rent is allowed for, the data cannot separate a place difference from a price difference.

Source: Gallup U.S. Daily, ladder 2009-2017; unweighted, intervals clustered by county; Area Deprivation Index 2023 and ACS 2019-2023 tract population joined on the respondent's county or ZIP code; unweighted

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/ladder_by_deprivation.json

### Table 3. Physical pain is 8.8 percentage points more common in the most deprived tenth of counties, the largest gap of the seven feelings, and 1.8 at the same characteristics and 1.2 with county rent also allowed for

Difference in the share reporting each feeling a lot of the day yesterday, most deprived minus least deprived tenth of interviews by county deprivation, Gallup U.S. Daily 2008 to 2017

| basis | conf_high | conf_low | estimate | feeling | n | n_units |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | ---: | ---: |
| As interviewed | −0.350 | −2.10 | −1.23 | Enjoyment | 525,461 | 1,250 |
| Same age, sex, race, education and nominal income | 2.16 | 0.990 | 1.58 | Enjoyment | 412,511 | 1,249 |
| Plus county rent level | −0.090 | −1.23 | −0.660 | Enjoyment | 412,511 | 1,249 |
| As interviewed | 0.200 | −1.41 | −0.610 | Happiness | 493,755 | 1,250 |
| Same age, sex, race, education and nominal income | 2.43 | 1.17 | 1.76 | Happiness | 385,768 | 1,249 |
| Plus county rent level | 0.150 | −1.09 | −0.490 | Happiness | 385,768 | 1,249 |
| As interviewed | 0.190 | −2.33 | −1.07 | Worry | 526,425 | 1,250 |
| Same age, sex, race, education and nominal income | −2.78 | −4.62 | −3.72 | Worry | 413,010 | 1,249 |
| Plus county rent level | 1.48 | −0.400 | 0.520 | Worry | 413,010 | 1,249 |
| As interviewed | −1.19 | −3.08 | −2.13 | Stress | 526,330 | 1,250 |
| Same age, sex, race, education and nominal income | −1.58 | −3 | −2.33 | Stress | 412,916 | 1,249 |
| Plus county rent level | 1.18 | −0.310 | 0.370 | Stress | 412,916 | 1,249 |
| As interviewed | 3.19 | 0.660 | 1.93 | Sadness | 494,753 | 1,250 |
| Same age, sex, race, education and nominal income | −0.960 | −2.40 | −1.73 | Sadness | 386,323 | 1,249 |
| Plus county rent level | 1.25 | −0.190 | 0.480 | Sadness | 386,323 | 1,249 |
| As interviewed | 0.250 | −1.67 | −0.710 | Anger | 421,120 | 1,250 |
| Same age, sex, race, education and nominal income | −0.630 | −1.87 | −1.29 | Anger | 326,006 | 1,248 |
| Plus county rent level | 1.10 | −0.230 | 0.400 | Anger | 326,006 | 1,248 |
| As interviewed | 9.68 | 7.87 | 8.77 | Physical pain | 526,330 | 1,250 |
| Same age, sex, race, education and nominal income | 2.26 | 1.38 | 1.81 | Physical pain | 412,916 | 1,249 |
| Plus county rent level | 1.70 | 0.820 | 1.23 | Physical pain | 412,916 | 1,249 |

Note: Gallup's extract has no survey weights, so every estimate is unweighted and levels can differ from the weighted figures Gallup publishes. County comes from the respondent's ZIP code and is approximate near county lines. The ladder is the evaluative measure and the feelings are experiential measures; they are never combined into one index.

Note: Each feeling is counted in the years its item was asked (see the table of items). The two adjusted dots use one sample, the interviews that report every characteristic and a county rent, so it is smaller. Deprivation is the county Area Deprivation Index, in deciles cut on all interviews. The rent is the FY2025 HUD two-bedroom Fair Market Rent of the county, a stand-in for relative price levels in 2008 to 2017.

Source: Gallup U.S. Daily, 2008-2017; unweighted, intervals clustered by county; Area Deprivation Index 2023 and ACS 2019-2023 tract population joined on the respondent's county or ZIP code

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/feelings_by_deprivation.json

### Table 4. The richest income bracket scores 0.68 standard deviations above the poorest on the ladder and −0.51 on physical pain, but only −0.12 on stress

Unweighted mean of each item in standard deviations of the item, by household income bracket, Gallup U.S. Daily interviews (ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017)

| Item | Income bracket (1 = lowest) | Mean in standard deviations | Raw mean (ladder points or share reporting) | Respondents |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Ladder now | 1 | −0.41 | 627.82 | 373,989 |
| Ladder now | 2 | −0.19 | 670.23 | 241,269 |
| Ladder now | 3 | −0.07 | 693.71 | 209,896 |
| Ladder now | 4 | 0.02 | 711.83 | 194,839 |
| Ladder now | 5 | 0.12 | 729.75 | 333,711 |
| Ladder now | 6 | 0.27 | 760.19 | 453,101 |
| Enjoyment | 1 | −0.26 | 76.78 | 440,439 |
| Enjoyment | 2 | −0.05 | 84.03 | 282,706 |
| Enjoyment | 3 | 0.02 | 86.46 | 247,271 |
| Enjoyment | 4 | 0.05 | 87.63 | 227,521 |
| Enjoyment | 5 | 0.09 | 88.86 | 390,056 |
| Enjoyment | 6 | 0.11 | 89.82 | 527,783 |
| Worry | 1 | 0.26 | 40.73 | 441,514 |
| Worry | 2 | 0.06 | 31.70 | 283,002 |
| Worry | 3 | −0.01 | 28.55 | 247,491 |
| Worry | 4 | −0.05 | 26.87 | 227,727 |
| Worry | 5 | −0.07 | 25.75 | 390,212 |
| Worry | 6 | −0.08 | 25.45 | 528,050 |
| Stress | 1 | 0.15 | 43.64 | 441,398 |
| Stress | 2 | 0.02 | 37.17 | 283,002 |
| Stress | 3 | −0.01 | 35.66 | 247,449 |
| Stress | 4 | −0.02 | 35.36 | 227,700 |
| Stress | 5 | −0.01 | 35.77 | 390,164 |
| Stress | 6 | 0.03 | 37.67 | 528,004 |
| Sadness | 1 | 0.33 | 28.83 | 419,214 |
| Sadness | 2 | 0.07 | 19.08 | 266,659 |
| Sadness | 3 | −0.02 | 15.85 | 235,369 |
| Sadness | 4 | −0.07 | 13.85 | 214,543 |
| Sadness | 5 | −0.12 | 12.12 | 363,770 |
| Sadness | 6 | −0.15 | 10.83 | 479,863 |
| Physical pain | 1 | 0.32 | 37.82 | 441,363 |
| Physical pain | 2 | 0.10 | 28.12 | 282,945 |
| Physical pain | 3 | 0.01 | 24.35 | 247,422 |
| Physical pain | 4 | −0.06 | 21.60 | 227,696 |
| Physical pain | 5 | −0.12 | 19.07 | 390,175 |
| Physical pain | 6 | −0.18 | 16.11 | 528,048 |

Note: Gallup's extract has no survey weights, so every estimate is unweighted and levels can differ from the weighted figures Gallup publishes. County comes from the respondent's ZIP code and is approximate near county lines. The ladder is the evaluative measure and the feelings are experiential measures; they are never combined into one index.

Note: Each item is scaled by its own mean and standard deviation over all respondents with the item, so the lines compare slopes, not levels, and the ladder is not combined with the feelings. Happiness and anger, asked in fewer years, are left out of this chart. The top bracket has no upper limit, so the chart cannot show whether an item flattens at higher incomes. Household income is reported for most but not all interviews, and brackets are in nominal dollars.

Source: Gallup U.S. Daily, ladder 2009-2017 and feelings 2008-2017; unweighted, intervals clustered by county; household income is the respondent's reported bracket

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/income_gradient.json

### Table 5. The income gradient of the ladder is nearly the same in all three bands of counties, 0.250 points per bracket across respondents and 0.251 within counties

Mean ladder score and share reporting physical pain by household income bracket, in three bands of county deprivation, Gallup U.S. Daily interviews (ladder 2009 to 2017, pain 2008 to 2017)

#### Table 5.1. Ladder score

Within each household income bracket, the ladder score differs by at most 0.12 points across three bands of county deprivation

Unweighted mean ladder score by household income bracket, in three bands of county deprivation (tenths 1 to 3, 4 to 7 and 8 to 10 of interviews), Gallup U.S. Daily 2009 to 2017

| bracket | conf_high | conf_low | estimate | n | n_units | place |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- |
| 1 | 6.37 | 6.29 | 6.33 | 86,715 | 237 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 2 | 6.72 | 6.67 | 6.69 | 58,576 | 236 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 3 | 6.92 | 6.88 | 6.90 | 54,352 | 238 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 4 | 7.08 | 7.03 | 7.06 | 54,434 | 236 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 5 | 7.26 | 7.21 | 7.24 | 105,652 | 238 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 6 | 7.60 | 7.57 | 7.58 | 183,790 | 237 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 1 | 6.31 | 6.26 | 6.29 | 139,826 | 763 | Middle four tenths |
| 2 | 6.72 | 6.68 | 6.70 | 95,714 | 763 | Middle four tenths |
| 3 | 6.95 | 6.91 | 6.93 | 85,958 | 761 | Middle four tenths |
| 4 | 7.14 | 7.10 | 7.12 | 80,130 | 760 | Middle four tenths |
| 5 | 7.32 | 7.29 | 7.30 | 137,439 | 763 | Middle four tenths |
| 6 | 7.63 | 7.60 | 7.61 | 178,686 | 763 | Middle four tenths |
| 1 | 6.26 | 6.22 | 6.24 | 147,372 | 2,109 | Most deprived three tenths |
| 2 | 6.72 | 6.69 | 6.71 | 86,910 | 2,104 | Most deprived three tenths |
| 3 | 6.99 | 6.95 | 6.97 | 69,541 | 2,092 | Most deprived three tenths |
| 4 | 7.19 | 7.15 | 7.17 | 60,226 | 2,078 | Most deprived three tenths |
| 5 | 7.37 | 7.34 | 7.36 | 90,515 | 2,097 | Most deprived three tenths |
| 6 | 7.63 | 7.60 | 7.62 | 90,545 | 2,090 | Most deprived three tenths |

#### Table 5.2. Physical pain

In the poorest income bracket, physical pain is 6.6 percentage points more common in the most deprived three tenths of counties than in the least deprived three tenths, against 1.7 in the richest bracket

Unweighted share reporting physical pain a lot of the day yesterday by household income bracket, in three bands of county deprivation, Gallup U.S. Daily 2008 to 2017

| bracket | conf_high | conf_low | estimate | n | n_units | place |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- |
| 1 | 35.02 | 33.38 | 34.20 | 102,306 | 237 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 2 | 27.73 | 26.35 | 27.04 | 68,623 | 237 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 3 | 24.53 | 23.38 | 23.95 | 64,124 | 238 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 4 | 21.60 | 20.44 | 21.02 | 63,809 | 236 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 5 | 19.54 | 18.78 | 19.16 | 124,159 | 238 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 6 | 16.05 | 15.35 | 15.70 | 215,333 | 237 | Least deprived three tenths of counties |
| 1 | 37.55 | 36.26 | 36.91 | 164,464 | 763 | Middle four tenths |
| 2 | 28.16 | 27.20 | 27.68 | 112,141 | 763 | Middle four tenths |
| 3 | 24.53 | 23.68 | 24.11 | 101,201 | 762 | Middle four tenths |
| 4 | 21.77 | 20.97 | 21.37 | 93,670 | 761 | Middle four tenths |
| 5 | 19.13 | 18.50 | 18.82 | 160,630 | 763 | Middle four tenths |
| 6 | 16.22 | 15.58 | 15.90 | 207,669 | 764 | Middle four tenths |
| 1 | 41.26 | 40.34 | 40.80 | 174,503 | 2,111 | Most deprived three tenths |
| 2 | 29.71 | 28.98 | 29.34 | 102,096 | 2,106 | Most deprived three tenths |
| 3 | 25.30 | 24.64 | 24.97 | 82,038 | 2,096 | Most deprived three tenths |
| 4 | 22.77 | 22.09 | 22.43 | 70,157 | 2,088 | Most deprived three tenths |
| 5 | 19.64 | 19.06 | 19.35 | 105,265 | 2,098 | Most deprived three tenths |
| 6 | 17.65 | 17.08 | 17.37 | 104,953 | 2,096 | Most deprived three tenths |

Note: Gallup's extract has no survey weights, so every estimate is unweighted and levels can differ from the weighted figures Gallup publishes. County comes from the respondent's ZIP code and is approximate near county lines. The ladder is the evaluative measure and the feelings are experiential measures; they are never combined into one index.

Note: Bands cut the deprivation deciles into the least deprived three, the middle four and the most deprived three tenths of interviews by county Area Deprivation Index. The slopes are coefficients of the ladder score on the bracket number (1 to 6) with errors clustered on county; the second has county fixed effects. Brackets are not equal in dollar width.

Source: Gallup U.S. Daily, ladder 2009-2017 and feelings 2008-2017; unweighted, intervals clustered by county; Area Deprivation Index 2023 and ACS 2019-2023 tract population joined on the respondent's county or ZIP code

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/income_within_places.json

### Table 6. Across respondents the ladder correlates −0.28 with worry and +0.26 with enjoyment, and across county means it moves together with most feelings more tightly

Cantril ladder scores against feelings yesterday, by whether the respondent reported each feeling, and the correlation of the two across respondents and across county means

#### Table 6.1. Ladder by feeling reported

Respondents who reported happiness rated their lives 1.57 ladder points higher, and those who reported sadness rated them 1.33 lower

Unweighted mean ladder score of respondents who did and did not report each feeling a lot of the day yesterday, Gallup U.S. Daily (ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017)

| feeling | group | n_no | n_yes | no | no_hi | no_lo | yes | yes_hi | yes_lo |
| --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Enjoyment | Positive feelings | 310,895 | 1,900,405 | 5.82 | 5.84 | 5.80 | 7.28 | 7.29 | 7.27 |
| Happiness | Positive feelings | 230,060 | 1,821,129 | 5.67 | 5.69 | 5.65 | 7.24 | 7.25 | 7.23 |
| Worry | Negative feelings | 1,573,559 | 640,621 | 7.42 | 7.43 | 7.41 | 6.22 | 6.24 | 6.20 |
| Stress | Negative feelings | 1,407,513 | 806,482 | 7.43 | 7.44 | 7.43 | 6.44 | 6.46 | 6.42 |
| Sadness | Negative feelings | 1,713,579 | 341,114 | 7.29 | 7.29 | 7.28 | 5.95 | 5.97 | 5.93 |
| Anger | Negative feelings | 1,483,704 | 202,942 | 7.18 | 7.19 | 7.17 | 6.11 | 6.13 | 6.09 |
| Physical pain | Negative feelings | 1,677,403 | 536,374 | 7.29 | 7.30 | 7.28 | 6.38 | 6.39 | 6.37 |

#### Table 6.2. Correlations

The ladder correlates +0.26 with enjoyment across respondents and +0.59 across county means, and −0.20 with pain across respondents and −0.62 across county means

Correlation of the Cantril ladder score with each feeling, across respondents and across county means, Gallup U.S. Daily (ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017)

| basis | conf_high | conf_low | estimate | feeling | n | n_units |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | ---: | ---: |
| Across respondents | 0.262 | 0.258 | 0.260 | Enjoyment | 2,211,300 | 3,141 |
| Across county means | 0.630 | 0.558 | 0.595 | Enjoyment | 2,175,289 | 2,356 |
| Across respondents | 0.257 | 0.253 | 0.255 | Happiness | 2,051,189 | 3,140 |
| Across county means | 0.588 | 0.499 | 0.544 | Happiness | 2,175,189 | 2,355 |
| Across respondents | −0.277 | −0.282 | −0.279 | Worry | 2,214,180 | 3,141 |
| Across county means | −0.323 | −0.436 | −0.381 | Worry | 2,175,289 | 2,356 |
| Across respondents | −0.244 | −0.249 | −0.247 | Stress | 2,213,995 | 3,141 |
| Across county means | −0.138 | −0.263 | −0.201 | Stress | 2,175,289 | 2,356 |
| Across respondents | −0.253 | −0.257 | −0.255 | Sadness | 2,054,693 | 3,140 |
| Across county means | −0.528 | −0.612 | −0.572 | Sadness | 2,175,189 | 2,355 |
| Across respondents | −0.178 | −0.182 | −0.180 | Anger | 1,686,646 | 3,139 |
| Across county means | −0.279 | −0.394 | −0.337 | Anger | 2,169,173 | 2,298 |
| Across respondents | −0.199 | −0.204 | −0.201 | Physical pain | 2,213,777 | 3,141 |
| Across county means | −0.583 | −0.662 | −0.623 | Physical pain | 2,175,289 | 2,356 |

Note: Gallup's extract has no survey weights, so every estimate is unweighted and levels can differ from the weighted figures Gallup publishes. County comes from the respondent's ZIP code and is approximate near county lines. The ladder is the evaluative measure and the feelings are experiential measures; they are never combined into one index.

Note: The ladder and the feelings were asked of the same respondents, so the comparison uses interviews with both answers. County means need at least the county floor of respondents with each item. Anger is asked in fewer years than the other feelings (see the table of items).

Source: Gallup U.S. Daily, ladder 2009-2017 and feelings 2008-2017; unweighted, intervals clustered by county

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/ladder_and_feelings.json

### Table 7. Physical pain is the feeling most closely tied to the county deaths-of-despair rate under every weighting and comparison, with a correlation of +0.65 across counties

Feelings and life ratings of Gallup U.S. Daily respondents against the deaths-of-despair rate of their county (ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017)

#### Table 7.1. By fifth of the county rate

The share reporting physical pain rises from 20.2% to 26.8% across fifths of the county deaths-of-despair rate, while stress stays near 37.4%

Unweighted share reporting each feeling a lot of the day yesterday, by fifth of interviews ranked by the deaths-of-despair rate of the respondent's county, Gallup U.S. Daily 2008 to 2017

| conf_high | conf_low | estimate | measure | n | n_units | quintile |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 20.55 | 19.78 | 20.16 | Physical pain | 465,440 | 150 | 1 |
| 22.69 | 21.60 | 22.15 | Physical pain | 466,441 | 190 | 2 |
| 24.28 | 23.45 | 23.86 | Physical pain | 474,417 | 278 | 3 |
| 25.77 | 24.80 | 25.28 | Physical pain | 470,320 | 277 | 4 |
| 27.32 | 26.27 | 26.80 | Physical pain | 474,232 | 446 | 5 |
| 16.44 | 15.29 | 15.86 | Sadness | 434,567 | 150 | 1 |
| 17.05 | 15.38 | 16.22 | Sadness | 436,885 | 190 | 2 |
| 16.51 | 15.98 | 16.25 | Sadness | 445,971 | 278 | 3 |
| 17.36 | 16.76 | 17.06 | Sadness | 442,076 | 277 | 4 |
| 17.72 | 17.18 | 17.45 | Sadness | 447,105 | 446 | 5 |
| 37.92 | 36.88 | 37.40 | Stress | 465,362 | 150 | 1 |
| 37.34 | 36.25 | 36.79 | Stress | 466,398 | 190 | 2 |
| 36.39 | 35.62 | 36 | Stress | 474,426 | 278 | 3 |
| 36.50 | 35.85 | 36.17 | Stress | 470,344 | 277 | 4 |
| 36.83 | 36.06 | 36.45 | Stress | 474,370 | 446 | 5 |

#### Table 7.2. Correlations across counties

Across counties, the share reporting pain correlates +0.65 with the deaths-of-despair rate, the highest of the feelings, and +0.43 once respondents are compared within cells

Correlation across counties between the county mean of each item and the county rate of deaths of despair (CDC, 2015, as compiled by the Joint Economic Committee), counties with enough respondents, Gallup U.S. Daily (ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017)

| conf_high | conf_low | estimate | group | measure | n_units | respondents |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | --- | ---: | ---: |
| 0.691 | 0.615 | 0.654 | Weighted by respondents | Physical pain | 1,337 | 2350453 |
| 0.627 | 0.536 | 0.582 | Each county once | Physical pain | 1,337 | 2350453 |
| 0.480 | 0.380 | 0.433 | Weighted, same age, sex, race, education and income | Physical pain | 1,331 | 1844740 |
| 0.410 | 0.197 | 0.308 | Weighted by respondents | Sadness | 1,337 | 2206239 |
| 0.522 | 0.385 | 0.453 | Each county once | Sadness | 1,337 | 2206239 |
| 0.061 | −0.118 | −0.030 | Weighted, same age, sex, race, education and income | Sadness | 1,331 | 1722909 |
| 0.167 | −0.046 | 0.059 | Weighted by respondents | Worry | 1,337 | 2350793 |
| 0.447 | 0.286 | 0.364 | Each county once | Worry | 1,337 | 2350793 |
| −0.048 | −0.213 | −0.134 | Weighted, same age, sex, race, education and income | Worry | 1,331 | 1845031 |
| 0.113 | −0.099 | 0.007 | Weighted by respondents | Anger | 1,337 | 1875987 |
| 0.331 | 0.158 | 0.244 | Each county once | Anger | 1,337 | 1875987 |
| 0.029 | −0.145 | −0.062 | Weighted, same age, sex, race, education and income | Anger | 1,331 | 1452370 |
| −0.009 | −0.169 | −0.088 | Weighted by respondents | Stress | 1,337 | 2350501 |
| 0.282 | 0.110 | 0.194 | Each county once | Stress | 1,337 | 2350501 |
| −0.001 | −0.151 | −0.077 | Weighted, same age, sex, race, education and income | Stress | 1,331 | 1844805 |
| 0.010 | −0.221 | −0.102 | Weighted by respondents | Happiness | 1,337 | 2202015 |
| −0.249 | −0.420 | −0.332 | Each county once | Happiness | 1,337 | 2202015 |
| 0.272 | 0.104 | 0.192 | Weighted, same age, sex, race, education and income | Happiness | 1,331 | 1720588 |
| −0.027 | −0.245 | −0.133 | Weighted by respondents | Enjoyment | 1,337 | 2347130 |
| −0.272 | −0.447 | −0.358 | Each county once | Enjoyment | 1,337 | 2347130 |
| 0.230 | 0.062 | 0.149 | Weighted, same age, sex, race, education and income | Enjoyment | 1,331 | 1843168 |
| −0.326 | −0.475 | −0.405 | Weighted by respondents | Ladder now | 1,337 | 1981094 |
| −0.355 | −0.481 | −0.420 | Each county once | Ladder now | 1,337 | 1981094 |
| 0.217 | 0.067 | 0.143 | Weighted, same age, sex, race, education and income | Ladder now | 1,331 | 1570386 |
| −0.488 | −0.596 | −0.542 | Weighted by respondents | Ladder in five years | 1,337 | 1900184 |
| −0.391 | −0.509 | −0.452 | Each county once | Ladder in five years | 1,337 | 1900184 |
| −0.045 | −0.172 | −0.108 | Weighted, same age, sex, race, education and income | Ladder in five years | 1,331 | 1522554 |

Note: Gallup's extract has no survey weights, so every estimate is unweighted and levels can differ from the weighted figures Gallup publishes. County comes from the respondent's ZIP code and is approximate near county lines. The ladder is the evaluative measure and the feelings are experiential measures; they are never combined into one index.

Note: The deaths-of-despair rate is a single 2015 cross-section covering the larger counties (suicide, alcohol and drug deaths, CDC multiple cause of death, compiled by the Joint Economic Committee). The file keeps it as a cross-check series and does not document its population base or age adjustment, so it is used here only to rank counties; the text checks it against CDC WONDER rates for 2018 to 2023. Fifths are cut on interviews in counties with a rate.

Note: County means need a floor of respondents with each item, and the same counties enter every dot. The third dot of each row compares respondents within cells of five-year age band, sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket before averaging to counties, so it uses interviews that report every characteristic.

Source: Gallup U.S. Daily, ladder 2009-2017 and feelings 2008-2017; unweighted, intervals clustered by county; county deaths of despair from the Joint Economic Committee compilation of CDC data for 2015

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/felt_despair.json

### Table 8. The ladder score is steadily worse toward the more deprived end under the ADI and under each of the three other rankings

Mean ladder score (0 to 10) by tenth of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked four ways, over the 3,121 counties that have all four rankings

| bin | conf_high | conf_low | estimate | n_units | ranking |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- |
| 1 | 7.23 | 7.11 | 7.17 | 41 | Area Deprivation Index |
| 2 | 7.17 | 7.10 | 7.13 | 88 | Area Deprivation Index |
| 3 | 7.13 | 7.07 | 7.10 | 110 | Area Deprivation Index |
| 4 | 7.15 | 7.08 | 7.11 | 142 | Area Deprivation Index |
| 5 | 7.12 | 7.07 | 7.10 | 158 | Area Deprivation Index |
| 6 | 7.13 | 7.07 | 7.10 | 197 | Area Deprivation Index |
| 7 | 7.08 | 7.03 | 7.06 | 284 | Area Deprivation Index |
| 8 | 7.06 | 7.02 | 7.04 | 329 | Area Deprivation Index |
| 9 | 7.00 | 6.96 | 6.98 | 572 | Area Deprivation Index |
| 10 | 6.94 | 6.91 | 6.93 | 1,200 | Area Deprivation Index |
| 1 | 7.25 | 7.19 | 7.22 | 101 | Standardized index |
| 2 | 7.19 | 7.14 | 7.16 | 100 | Standardized index |
| 3 | 7.15 | 7.10 | 7.12 | 168 | Standardized index |
| 4 | 7.13 | 7.09 | 7.11 | 188 | Standardized index |
| 5 | 7.10 | 7.05 | 7.07 | 185 | Standardized index |
| 6 | 7.07 | 7.03 | 7.05 | 248 | Standardized index |
| 7 | 7.08 | 7.00 | 7.04 | 240 | Standardized index |
| 8 | 7.06 | 6.99 | 7.03 | 321 | Standardized index |
| 9 | 6.98 | 6.95 | 6.96 | 579 | Standardized index |
| 10 | 6.96 | 6.92 | 6.94 | 991 | Standardized index |
| 1 | 7.24 | 7.19 | 7.22 | 83 | Median household income |
| 2 | 7.18 | 7.12 | 7.15 | 95 | Median household income |
| 3 | 7.14 | 7.08 | 7.11 | 131 | Median household income |
| 4 | 7.12 | 7.05 | 7.09 | 130 | Median household income |
| 5 | 7.11 | 7.04 | 7.07 | 190 | Median household income |
| 6 | 7.11 | 7.04 | 7.07 | 201 | Median household income |
| 7 | 7.08 | 7.03 | 7.06 | 310 | Median household income |
| 8 | 7.06 | 7.01 | 7.03 | 348 | Median household income |
| 9 | 7.00 | 6.95 | 6.97 | 524 | Median household income |
| 10 | 6.95 | 6.92 | 6.94 | 1,109 | Median household income |
| 1 | 7.26 | 7.21 | 7.24 | 91 | Bachelor's degree share |
| 2 | 7.19 | 7.14 | 7.16 | 119 | Bachelor's degree share |
| 3 | 7.16 | 7.10 | 7.13 | 97 | Bachelor's degree share |
| 4 | 7.13 | 7.08 | 7.10 | 125 | Bachelor's degree share |
| 5 | 7.11 | 7.05 | 7.08 | 157 | Bachelor's degree share |
| 6 | 7.07 | 7.02 | 7.04 | 148 | Bachelor's degree share |
| 7 | 7.12 | 7.05 | 7.08 | 238 | Bachelor's degree share |
| 8 | 7.02 | 6.98 | 7.00 | 414 | Bachelor's degree share |
| 9 | 6.99 | 6.95 | 6.97 | 615 | Bachelor's degree share |
| 10 | 6.92 | 6.89 | 6.90 | 1,117 | Bachelor's degree share |

Note: Least and most deprived tenth: ADI 7.17 and 6.93, rank correlation −0.98; standardized index 7.22 and 6.94, −1.00; median household income 7.22 and 6.94, −1.00; bachelor's degree share 7.24 and 6.90, −0.96.

Note: The standardized index applies the ADI's coefficients to its measures after standardizing each one, so home value and income carry less weight than in the ADI. Income and degree share are single census measures, each ranked from the highest value to the lowest.

Source: Gallup U.S. Daily, ladder 2009-2017; unweighted, intervals clustered by county; Area Deprivation Index 2023 and ACS 2019-2023 tract population joined on the respondent's county or ZIP code; unweighted; ADI 2023 and ACS 2019-2023 tract tables (B19013, B15003 and the 15 rebuilt ADI measures)

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/alt_rankings.json

## All estimates

Every fact in facts.json (157), sorted by id.

| Fact id | Value | Unit | Estimand | Population | Period | Interval | n | Weights | Source | Note |
| --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- |
| age_q1 | 51.9 | years of age | unweighted mean age, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the lowest fifth of interviews, ranked by the deaths-of-despair rate of the respondent's county | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 51.3 to 52.5 | 617,488 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| age_q5 | 55.5 | years of age | unweighted mean age, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the highest fifth of interviews, ranked by the deaths-of-despair rate of the respondent's county | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 55.1 to 56.0 | 619,036 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_adi_least | 7.17 | Mean ladder score (0 to 10) | unweighted mean ladder score; 95% intervals clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the least deprived tenth of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Area Deprivation Index, among interviews whose county has all four rankings | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 7.11 to 7.23 | 41 counties | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_adi_most | 6.93 | Mean ladder score (0 to 10) | unweighted mean ladder score; 95% intervals clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the most deprived tenth of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Area Deprivation Index, among interviews whose county has all four rankings | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 6.91 to 6.94 | 1,200 counties | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_adi_rho | −0.98 | rank correlation | Spearman rank correlation between bin order and bin mean, each bin counted once | the tenths of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Area Deprivation Index | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | each bin counted once | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_degree_least | 7.24 | Mean ladder score (0 to 10) | unweighted mean ladder score; 95% intervals clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the least deprived tenth of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Bachelor's degree share, among interviews whose county has all four rankings | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 7.21 to 7.26 | 91 counties | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_degree_most | 6.90 | Mean ladder score (0 to 10) | unweighted mean ladder score; 95% intervals clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the most deprived tenth of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Bachelor's degree share, among interviews whose county has all four rankings | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 6.89 to 6.92 | 1,117 counties | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_degree_rho | −0.96 | rank correlation | Spearman rank correlation between bin order and bin mean, each bin counted once | the tenths of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Bachelor's degree share | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | each bin counted once | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_income_least | 7.22 | Mean ladder score (0 to 10) | unweighted mean ladder score; 95% intervals clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the least deprived tenth of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Median household income, among interviews whose county has all four rankings | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 7.19 to 7.24 | 83 counties | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_income_most | 6.94 | Mean ladder score (0 to 10) | unweighted mean ladder score; 95% intervals clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the most deprived tenth of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Median household income, among interviews whose county has all four rankings | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 6.92 to 6.95 | 1,109 counties | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_income_rho | −1.00 | rank correlation | Spearman rank correlation between bin order and bin mean, each bin counted once | the tenths of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Median household income | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | each bin counted once | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_n_places | 3,121 | counties | count of counties in the common sample of the ranking comparison | counties with the outcome and all four rankings | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | none (full count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_rho_cut | 0.9 | absolute rank correlation | threshold between a steady and an uneven gradient | the rule for changed gradients (docs/RANKING_SWITCH_RULE.md) | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | none (a fixed rule) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_rho_margin | 0.1 | absolute rank correlation | smallest move in the rank correlation that counts as a change of shape | the rule for changed gradients (docs/RANKING_SWITCH_RULE.md) | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | none (a fixed rule) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_std_least | 7.22 | Mean ladder score (0 to 10) | unweighted mean ladder score; 95% intervals clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the least deprived tenth of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Standardized index, among interviews whose county has all four rankings | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 7.19 to 7.25 | 101 counties | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_std_most | 6.94 | Mean ladder score (0 to 10) | unweighted mean ladder score; 95% intervals clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the most deprived tenth of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Standardized index, among interviews whose county has all four rankings | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 6.92 to 6.96 | 991 counties | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| alt_std_rho | −1.00 | rank correlation | Spearman rank correlation between bin order and bin mean, each bin counted once | the tenths of interviews, with the respondent's county ranked by Standardized index | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | each bin counted once | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| county_floor | 100 | respondents | minimum number of respondents with an item for a county mean to enter (a definition of the sample) | counties in the county-level correlations | interviews: ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017 |   |   | none (definition) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| expected_inc1 | 6.98 | expected ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | unweighted mean of the ladder score the respondent expects to have in the future, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the poorest household income bracket with an expected ladder score | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 6.95 to 7.02 | 348,488 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| expected_inc6 | 8.11 | expected ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | unweighted mean of the ladder score the respondent expects to have in the future, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the richest household income bracket with an expected ladder score | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 8.10 to 8.12 | 446,942 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_adj_anger | −1.3 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent and an answer to the anger item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −1.9 to −0.6 | 326,006 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_adj_enjoyment | 1.6 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent and an answer to the enjoyment item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI 1.0 to 2.2 | 412,511 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_adj_happiness_yest | 1.8 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent and an answer to the happiness item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI 1.2 to 2.4 | 385,768 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_adj_physical_pain | 1.8 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent and an answer to the physical pain item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI 1.4 to 2.3 | 412,916 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_adj_sadness | −1.7 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent and an answer to the sadness item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −2.4 to −1.0 | 386,323 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_adj_stress | −2.3 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent and an answer to the stress item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −3.0 to −1.6 | 412,916 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_adj_worry | −3.7 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent and an answer to the worry item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −4.6 to −2.8 | 413,010 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_anger | −0.7 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | difference between the unweighted shares reporting the feeling a lot of the day yesterday in the most and the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by county ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with an answer to the anger item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −1.7 to 0.3 | 421,120 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_enjoyment | −1.2 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | difference between the unweighted shares reporting the feeling a lot of the day yesterday in the most and the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by county ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with an answer to the enjoyment item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −2.1 to −0.4 | 525,461 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_happiness_yest | −0.6 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | difference between the unweighted shares reporting the feeling a lot of the day yesterday in the most and the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by county ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with an answer to the happiness item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −1.4 to 0.2 | 493,755 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_physical_pain | 8.8 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | difference between the unweighted shares reporting the feeling a lot of the day yesterday in the most and the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by county ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with an answer to the physical pain item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI 7.9 to 9.7 | 526,330 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_rent_anger | 0.4 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket and a quintile of county rent, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the anger item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −0.2 to 1.1 | 326,006 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| gap_rent_enjoyment | −0.7 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket and a quintile of county rent, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the enjoyment item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −1.2 to −0.1 | 412,511 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| gap_rent_happiness_yest | −0.5 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket and a quintile of county rent, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the happiness item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −1.1 to 0.2 | 385,768 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| gap_rent_physical_pain | 1.2 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket and a quintile of county rent, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the physical pain item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI 0.8 to 1.7 | 412,916 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| gap_rent_sadness | 0.5 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket and a quintile of county rent, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the sadness item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −0.2 to 1.2 | 386,323 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| gap_rent_stress | 0.4 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket and a quintile of county rent, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the stress item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −0.3 to 1.2 | 412,916 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| gap_rent_worry | 0.5 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the same difference after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket and a quintile of county rent, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the worry item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −0.4 to 1.5 | 413,010 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| gap_sadness | 1.9 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | difference between the unweighted shares reporting the feeling a lot of the day yesterday in the most and the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by county ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with an answer to the sadness item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI 0.7 to 3.2 | 494,753 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_stress | −2.1 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | difference between the unweighted shares reporting the feeling a lot of the day yesterday in the most and the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by county ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with an answer to the stress item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −3.1 to −1.2 | 526,330 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_worry | −1.1 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | difference between the unweighted shares reporting the feeling a lot of the day yesterday in the most and the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by county ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with an answer to the worry item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years the item was asked | 95% CI −2.3 to 0.2 | 526,425 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| gap_zip_physical_pain | 11.0 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | difference between the unweighted shares reporting physical pain in the most and the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by ZIP-area ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with an answer to the pain item in the two extreme ZIP-area tenths | interviews 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 10.3 to 11.7 | 513,469 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| icc_ladder | 0.51% | percent of the variance of the ladder score | intraclass correlation of the ladder score by county (one-way ANOVA estimator), bootstrap over counties | interviews with a ladder score and a county | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.46% to 0.56% | 3,141 counties | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| inc_gap_enjoyment | 0.37 | standard deviations, richest bracket minus poorest bracket | difference between the unweighted means of the item in the richest and the poorest household income bracket, in standard deviations of the item over all respondents, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with a household income bracket and an answer to the enjoyment item, in the poorest and the richest bracket | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.37 to 0.38 | 968,222 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| inc_gap_ladder | 0.68 | standard deviations, richest bracket minus poorest bracket | difference between the unweighted means of the item in the richest and the poorest household income bracket, in standard deviations of the item over all respondents, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with a household income bracket and an answer to the ladder score item, in the poorest and the richest bracket | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.67 to 0.69 | 827,090 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| inc_gap_physical_pain | −0.51 | standard deviations, richest bracket minus poorest bracket | difference between the unweighted means of the item in the richest and the poorest household income bracket, in standard deviations of the item over all respondents, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with a household income bracket and an answer to the physical pain item, in the poorest and the richest bracket | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.52 to −0.50 | 969,411 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| inc_gap_sadness | −0.48 | standard deviations, richest bracket minus poorest bracket | difference between the unweighted means of the item in the richest and the poorest household income bracket, in standard deviations of the item over all respondents, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with a household income bracket and an answer to the sadness item, in the poorest and the richest bracket | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.49 to −0.48 | 899,077 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| inc_gap_stress | −0.12 | standard deviations, richest bracket minus poorest bracket | difference between the unweighted means of the item in the richest and the poorest household income bracket, in standard deviations of the item over all respondents, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with a household income bracket and an answer to the stress item, in the poorest and the richest bracket | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.13 to −0.11 | 969,402 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| inc_gap_worry | −0.34 | standard deviations, richest bracket minus poorest bracket | difference between the unweighted means of the item in the richest and the poorest household income bracket, in standard deviations of the item over all respondents, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with a household income bracket and an answer to the worry item, in the poorest and the richest bracket | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.35 to −0.33 | 969,564 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| income_top_cut | $90,000 | dollars of annual household income | the lower limit of the top household income bracket (a definition of the bracket) | the richest household income bracket in the Gallup extract (this amount and over) | interviews in 2008 to 2017 |   |   | none (definition) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| kd_threshold | $75,000 | dollars of annual household income | annual income above which a measure of emotional well-being stopped rising with log income in Kahneman and Deaton (2010); copied from the paper | respondents in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index analyzed by Kahneman and Deaton | 2008 to 2009 |   |   | as in the paper | Published estimates from cited studies | A published figure from the paper, not a result of this build. |
| kw_threshold | $100,000 | dollars of annual household income | annual income above which well-being flattened for an unhappy minority in Killingsworth, Kahneman and Mellers (2023); copied from the paper | the unhappiest fifth of respondents in the experience-sampling data analyzed by Killingsworth, Kahneman and Mellers | 2009 to 2022 |   |   | as in the paper | Published estimates from cited studies | A published figure from the paper, not a result of this build. |
| ladder_adj_d10_county | 7.10 | Cantril ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | mean ladder score after subtracting the mean of the respondent's cell (five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket) and adding the grand mean, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the most deprived tenth of interviews by county deprivation | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 7.08 to 7.11 | 177,139 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_adj_d1_county | 6.97 | Cantril ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | mean ladder score after subtracting the mean of the respondent's cell (five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket) and adding the grand mean, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the least deprived tenth of interviews by county deprivation | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 6.94 to 7.00 | 173,060 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_d10_county | 6.93 | Cantril ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | unweighted mean ladder score in a tenth of interviews ranked by the deprivation of the respondent's county (county ADI is the mean of its tracts' ADI 2023 national ranks weighted by 2019-2023 tract population), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the most deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's county | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 6.91 to 6.94 | 223,260 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_d10_zip | 6.87 | Cantril ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | unweighted mean ladder score in a tenth of interviews ranked by the deprivation of the respondent's ZIP area (ZIP-area ADI is the 2023 national rank of the ZCTA with the ZIP code's number, an area-weighted approximation), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the most deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's ZIP area | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 6.85 to 6.88 | 217,263 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_d1_county | 7.17 | Cantril ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | unweighted mean ladder score in a tenth of interviews ranked by the deprivation of the respondent's county (county ADI is the mean of its tracts' ADI 2023 national ranks weighted by 2019-2023 tract population), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's county | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 7.11 to 7.23 | 218,776 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_d1_zip | 7.29 | Cantril ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | unweighted mean ladder score in a tenth of interviews ranked by the deprivation of the respondent's ZIP area (ZIP-area ADI is the 2023 national rank of the ZCTA with the ZIP code's number, an area-weighted approximation), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's ZIP area | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 7.24 to 7.34 | 213,516 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_drop_county | 0.24 | ladder points, least deprived tenth minus most deprived tenth | difference between the unweighted mean ladder scores of the least and the most deprived tenth (county ADI is the mean of its tracts' ADI 2023 national ranks weighted by 2019-2023 tract population), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the two extreme tenths of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's county | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.18 to 0.31 | 442,036 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_drop_county_with08 | 0.26 | ladder points, least deprived tenth minus most deprived tenth | the county drop of the chapter's main comparison recomputed with the 2008 ladder answers left in, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the two extreme tenths of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's county, including 2008 | interviews in 2008 to 2017 including the 2008 ladder, which carries a question-order artifact | 95% CI 0.19 to 0.33 | 513,776 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_drop_zip | 0.42 | ladder points, least deprived tenth minus most deprived tenth | difference between the unweighted mean ladder scores of the least and the most deprived tenth (ZIP-area ADI is the 2023 national rank of the ZCTA with the ZIP code's number, an area-weighted approximation), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the two extreme tenths of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's ZIP area | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.37 to 0.48 | 430,779 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_gap_adj_county | 0.13 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.10 to 0.16 | 350,199 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_gap_adj_county_with08 | +0.12 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the nominal-income gap of the chapter's main comparison recomputed with the 2008 ladder answers left in, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths, including 2008 | interviews in 2008 to 2017 including the 2008 ladder, which carries a question-order artifact | 95% CI 0.09 to 0.15 | 403,911 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_gap_adj_zip | 0.07 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme ZIP area tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.04 to 0.10 | 343,365 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_gap_edu6 | 0.13 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the nominal-income gap with the six-level education item in the cells in place of the three-level one, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, six-level education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.10 to 0.16 | 350,199 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_gap_eqc | +0.02 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, with each county counted once (counties with at least the survey floor of interviews with the item), bootstrap over counties | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.03 to 0.07 | 347,376 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_gap_lnrent | −0.04 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, with the logarithm of county rent also a linear control, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.07 to −0.01 | 350,199 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| ladder_gap_rentq | −0.02 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, with a quintile of county rent also in the cells, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.05 to 0.00 | 350,199 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| ladder_gap_rentq_with08 | −0.03 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the rent-quintile gap of the chapter's main comparison recomputed with the 2008 ladder answers left in, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths, including 2008 | interviews in 2008 to 2017 including the 2008 ladder, which carries a question-order artifact | 95% CI −0.06 to 0.00 | 403,911 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| ladder_gap_rentq_zip | −0.06 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme ZIP-area tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket and a quintile of county rent, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme ZIP-area tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.09 to −0.03 | 343,365 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| ladder_inc1 | 6.28 | Cantril ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | unweighted mean ladder score, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the poorest household income bracket | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 6.26 to 6.29 | 373,989 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_inc6 | 7.60 | Cantril ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | unweighted mean ladder score, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the richest household income bracket | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 7.59 to 7.61 | 453,101 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_q1 | 7.15 | Cantril ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | unweighted mean ladder score, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the lowest fifth of interviews, ranked by the deaths-of-despair rate of the respondent's county | interviews 2009 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 7.12 to 7.18 | 392,393 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_q5 | 7.00 | Cantril ladder score (0 worst possible life, 10 best possible life) | unweighted mean ladder score, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the highest fifth of interviews, ranked by the deaths-of-despair rate of the respondent's county | interviews 2009 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 6.98 to 7.02 | 399,284 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_share_2009 | 85% | percent of the year's interviews that carry a ladder score | share of the year's interviews with a ladder score (unweighted count) | interviews with a county in 2009 | 2009 |   | 353,849 respondents | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| ladder_share_late | 49% | percent of interviews that carry a ladder score | share of interviews with a ladder score (unweighted count) | interviews with a county from 2013 to 2017 | 2013 to 2017 |   | 1,750,460 respondents | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| lf_enjoy | 1.46 | ladder points higher among respondents who reported the feeling | difference between the unweighted mean ladder scores of respondents who did and did not report the feeling a lot of the day yesterday, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the enjoyment item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI 1.44 to 1.47 | 2,211,300 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| lf_happy | 1.57 | ladder points higher among respondents who reported the feeling | difference between the unweighted mean ladder scores of respondents who did and did not report the feeling a lot of the day yesterday, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the happiness item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI 1.55 to 1.59 | 2,051,189 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| lf_pain | 0.91 | ladder points lower among respondents who reported the feeling | difference between the unweighted mean ladder scores of respondents who did and did not report the feeling a lot of the day yesterday, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the physical pain item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI 0.90 to 0.93 | 2,213,777 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| lf_sad | 1.33 | ladder points lower among respondents who reported the feeling | difference between the unweighted mean ladder scores of respondents who did and did not report the feeling a lot of the day yesterday, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the sadness item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI 1.32 to 1.35 | 2,054,693 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| mto_swb | 0.098 | standard deviations of a three-point happiness question | intention-to-treat effect of the offer to move to a less disadvantaged area on a standardized answer to 'how would you say things are these days: very happy, pretty happy, not too happy' in the Moving to Opportunity experiment (Ludwig and coauthors 2012); the estimate and standard error (0.039) are copied from the paper and the interval is the estimate plus or minus 1.96 standard errors | low-income adults in public housing in five cities (Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York) who were offered a housing voucher to move to a lower-poverty neighborhood or an unrestricted voucher, or stayed, by random assignment | long-term follow-up survey, 10 to 15 years after random assignment | 95% CI 0.022 to 0.174 |   | as in the paper | Published estimates from cited studies | A published estimate for the study's adult sample, not a result of this build. |
| n_cell_sample | 1,759,964 | interviews | count of interviews in the one sample used for every comparison within cells (the cell means come from these interviews at every step) | interviews with a county, a ladder score, an age, a sex, a race, an education level, a household income bracket and a county rent | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| n_counties | 3,142 | counties | count of distinct county codes assigned to respondents (derived from the ZIP code) | counties of the interviews in the analysis | 2008 to 2017 |   |   | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| n_counties_d1 | 45 | counties | count of distinct counties among the interviews in the tenth (a tenth holds about a tenth of interviews, not of counties) | counties of the interviews in the least deprived tenth of interviews by county deprivation | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| n_counties_d10 | 1,205 | counties | count of distinct counties among the interviews in the tenth (a tenth holds about a tenth of interviews, not of counties) | counties of the interviews in the most deprived tenth of interviews by county deprivation | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| n_despair_counties | 1,337 | counties | count of counties in the correlations with the deaths-of-despair rate | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews: ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 |   |   | none (full count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| n_interviews | 3,519,539 | interviews | count of interviews with a county code (derived from the ZIP code); the others are dropped | interviews with a county | 2008 to 2017 |   |   | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| n_interviews_all | 3,530,270 | interviews | count of interviews in the extract (unweighted) | all interviews in the Gallup U.S. Daily extract | 2008 to 2017 |   |   | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| n_ladder | 2,217,485 | interviews | count of interviews with a ladder score | interviews with a county and a ladder score | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| n_no_county | 10,731 | interviews | count of interviews dropped because the extract has no county for them | interviews with no county code | 2008 to 2017 |   |   | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| n_no_county_adi | 784 | interviews | count of interviews left out of the county deprivation comparisons because the county has no index or is a split county | interviews with a county whose county has no Area Deprivation Index | ADI 2023 |   |   | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| n_wonder_counties | 534 | counties | count of counties whose drug, alcohol and suicide counts are published in every year 2018 to 2023 (complete counties, as in the chapter on overdose, alcohol and suicide) and that have a JEC rate and enough respondents | counties with a JEC rate, a complete WONDER rate and at least 100 respondents with each of the ladder, pain and stress items | interviews: ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017; JEC deaths of despair 2015; WONDER deaths 2018 to 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | CDC WONDER underlying cause of death |   |
| other_gap_max | 2.1 | percentage points (absolute value) | the largest absolute difference between the most and the least deprived county tenth among the six feelings other than physical pain | respondents in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in the years each item was asked |   |   | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| pain_d10_county | 29.6% | percent reporting physical pain a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share in a tenth of interviews ranked by county ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the most deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's county | interviews 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 29.2% to 30.0% | 264,787 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| pain_d1_county | 20.8% | percent reporting physical pain a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share in a tenth of interviews ranked by county ADI, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's county | interviews 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 20.0% to 21.7% | 261,543 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| pain_gap_eqc | 1.7 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the pain gap after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, with each county counted once (counties with at least the survey floor of interviews with the item), bootstrap over counties | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the pain item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 1.1 to 2.3 | 410,598 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| pain_gap_explained | 80% | percent of the raw gap | share of the gap in the pain share between the extreme county tenths that disappears when respondents are compared within cells, bootstrap over counties with shared draws | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent and an answer to the pain item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 77% to 84% | 412,916 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| pain_gap_lnrent | 1.1 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the pain gap after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, with the logarithm of county rent also a linear control, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the pain item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.6 to 1.5 | 412,916 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| pain_gap_rentq | 1.2 | percentage points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | the pain gap after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, with a quintile of county rent also in the cells, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income, a county rent and an answer to the pain item in the two extreme county tenths | interviews 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.8 to 1.7 | 412,916 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents |   |
| pain_inc1 | 37.8% | percent reporting physical pain a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the poorest household income bracket | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 37.4% to 38.3% | 441,363 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| pain_inc6 | 16.1% | percent reporting physical pain a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the richest household income bracket | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 15.9% to 16.3% | 528,048 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| pain_q1 | 20.2% | percent reporting physical pain a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the lowest fifth of interviews, ranked by the deaths-of-despair rate of the respondent's county | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 19.8% to 20.6% | 465,440 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| pain_q5 | 26.8% | percent reporting physical pain a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the highest fifth of interviews, ranked by the deaths-of-despair rate of the respondent's county | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 26.3% to 27.3% | 474,232 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| pain_q_gap | 6.6 | percentage points, highest fifth minus lowest fifth | difference between the unweighted shares reporting physical pain, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the two extreme fifths of interviews by county deaths-of-despair rate | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 6.0 to 7.3 | 939,672 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| place_spread_ladder | 0.12 | ladder points (largest spread over the six brackets) | largest, over the six household income brackets, of the difference between the highest and the lowest of the three band means | respondents in each household income bracket, in the least, middle and most deprived county bands | interviews in 2009 to 2017 |   |   | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| placegap_ladder_inc1 | −0.09 | ladder points, most deprived three tenths minus least deprived three tenths | difference between the unweighted means (shares for pain) in the most and the least deprived band of counties (tenths 8 to 10 and 1 to 3 of interviews by county ADI), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the poorest household income bracket, in the two extreme county bands | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.13 to −0.05 | 234,087 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| placegap_ladder_inc6 | 0.03 | ladder points, most deprived three tenths minus least deprived three tenths | difference between the unweighted means (shares for pain) in the most and the least deprived band of counties (tenths 8 to 10 and 1 to 3 of interviews by county ADI), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the richest household income bracket, in the two extreme county bands | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.01 to 0.05 | 274,335 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| placegap_pain_inc1 | 6.6 | percentage points, most deprived three tenths minus least deprived three tenths | difference between the unweighted means (shares for pain) in the most and the least deprived band of counties (tenths 8 to 10 and 1 to 3 of interviews by county ADI), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the poorest household income bracket, in the two extreme county bands | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 5.7 to 7.5 | 276,809 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| placegap_pain_inc6 | 1.7 | percentage points, most deprived three tenths minus least deprived three tenths | difference between the unweighted means (shares for pain) in the most and the least deprived band of counties (tenths 8 to 10 and 1 to 3 of interviews by county ADI), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the richest household income bracket, in the two extreme county bands | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 1.2 to 2.1 | 320,286 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_county_enjoy | +0.59 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean ladder score and the county share reporting the feeling, counties weighted by their respondents, bootstrap over counties | counties with at least 100 respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the enjoyment item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI 0.56 to 0.63 | 2,356 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_county_pain | −0.62 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean ladder score and the county share reporting the feeling, counties weighted by their respondents, bootstrap over counties | counties with at least 100 respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the physical pain item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI −0.66 to −0.58 | 2,356 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_county_sad | −0.57 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean ladder score and the county share reporting the feeling, counties weighted by their respondents, bootstrap over counties | counties with at least 100 respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the sadness item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI −0.61 to −0.53 | 2,355 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_county_stress | −0.20 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean ladder score and the county share reporting the feeling, counties weighted by their respondents, bootstrap over counties | counties with at least 100 respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the stress item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI −0.26 to −0.14 | 2,356 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_ladder | −0.40 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), counties weighted by their respondents with the item, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2009 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI −0.47 to −0.33 | 1,337 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_ladder5 | −0.54 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), counties weighted by their respondents with the item, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2009 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI −0.60 to −0.49 | 1,337 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_ladder_adj | +0.14 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the cell-adjusted item (five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket) and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair, counties weighted by their respondents, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item (respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent) | interviews 2009 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 0.07 to 0.22 | 1,331 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_ladder_agesex | −0.47 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean ladder score after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band and sex and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair, counties weighted by their respondents, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item (respondents with age and sex) | interviews 2009 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI −0.53 to −0.40 | 1,331 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_pain | +0.65 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), counties weighted by their respondents with the item, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 0.61 to 0.69 | 1,337 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_pain_adj | +0.43 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the cell-adjusted item (five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket) and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair, counties weighted by their respondents, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item (respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent) | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 0.38 to 0.48 | 1,331 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_pain_agesex | +0.62 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band and sex and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair, counties weighted by their respondents, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item (respondents with age and sex) | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 0.58 to 0.66 | 1,331 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_pain_unw | +0.58 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), each county counted once, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 0.54 to 0.63 | 1,337 counties | none (each county counts once) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_sad | +0.31 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), counties weighted by their respondents with the item, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 0.20 to 0.41 | 1,337 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_sad_unw | +0.45 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), each county counted once, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 0.39 to 0.52 | 1,337 counties | none (each county counts once) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_stress | −0.09 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), counties weighted by their respondents with the item, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI −0.17 to −0.01 | 1,337 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_stress_unw | +0.19 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), each county counted once, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 0.11 to 0.28 | 1,337 counties | none (each county counts once) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_worry | +0.06 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), counties weighted by their respondents with the item, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI −0.05 to 0.17 | 1,337 counties | respondents with the item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_des_worry_unw | +0.36 | correlation coefficient | correlation across counties between the county mean of the item and the JEC county rate of deaths of despair (CDC multiple cause of death, 2015), each county counted once, bootstrap over counties | counties with a deaths-of-despair rate and at least 100 respondents with each item | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 0.29 to 0.45 | 1,337 counties | none (each county counts once) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_jec_wonder | +0.81 | correlation coefficient | correlation across these counties between the JEC 2015 rate of deaths of despair and the WONDER rate, counties weighted by their respondents with the pain item, bootstrap over counties; the WONDER rate is the sum of the county crude rates of drug, alcohol and suicide deaths per 100,000, 2018 to 2023, which includes suicides by drug poisoning in both the drug and the suicide rate | counties with a JEC rate, a complete WONDER rate and at least 100 respondents with each of the ladder, pain and stress items | interviews: ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017; JEC deaths of despair 2015; WONDER deaths 2018 to 2023 | 95% CI 0.77 to 0.84 | 534 counties | respondents with the pain item in each county | CDC WONDER underlying cause of death |   |
| r_pain_jec_same | +0.69 | correlation coefficient | correlation across these counties between the county share reporting physical pain and the JEC 2015 rate, counties weighted by their respondents with the pain item, bootstrap over counties; the WONDER rate is the sum of the county crude rates of drug, alcohol and suicide deaths per 100,000, 2018 to 2023, which includes suicides by drug poisoning in both the drug and the suicide rate | counties with a JEC rate, a complete WONDER rate and at least 100 respondents with each of the ladder, pain and stress items | interviews: ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017; JEC deaths of despair 2015; WONDER deaths 2018 to 2023 | 95% CI 0.64 to 0.74 | 534 counties | respondents with the pain item in each county | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_pain_wonder | +0.58 | correlation coefficient | correlation across these counties between the county share reporting physical pain and the WONDER rate, counties weighted by their respondents with the pain item, bootstrap over counties; the WONDER rate is the sum of the county crude rates of drug, alcohol and suicide deaths per 100,000, 2018 to 2023, which includes suicides by drug poisoning in both the drug and the suicide rate | counties with a JEC rate, a complete WONDER rate and at least 100 respondents with each of the ladder, pain and stress items | interviews: ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017; JEC deaths of despair 2015; WONDER deaths 2018 to 2023 | 95% CI 0.51 to 0.64 | 534 counties | respondents with the pain item in each county | CDC WONDER underlying cause of death |   |
| r_person_anger | −0.18 | correlation coefficient | correlation between the ladder score and the 0/1 answer across respondents, unweighted, bootstrap over counties | respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the anger item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI −0.18 to −0.18 | 1,686,646 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_person_enjoy | +0.26 | correlation coefficient | correlation between the ladder score and the 0/1 answer across respondents, unweighted, bootstrap over counties | respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the enjoyment item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI 0.26 to 0.26 | 2,211,300 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_person_pain | −0.20 | correlation coefficient | correlation between the ladder score and the 0/1 answer across respondents, unweighted, bootstrap over counties | respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the physical pain item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI −0.20 to −0.20 | 2,213,777 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_person_worry | −0.28 | correlation coefficient | correlation between the ladder score and the 0/1 answer across respondents, unweighted, bootstrap over counties | respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the worry item | interviews in the years the ladder (2009 to 2017) and the feeling were both asked | 95% CI −0.28 to −0.28 | 2,214,180 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| r_stress_wonder | −0.14 | correlation coefficient | correlation across these counties between the county share reporting stress and the WONDER rate, counties weighted by their respondents with the pain item, bootstrap over counties; the WONDER rate is the sum of the county crude rates of drug, alcohol and suicide deaths per 100,000, 2018 to 2023, which includes suicides by drug poisoning in both the drug and the suicide rate | counties with a JEC rate, a complete WONDER rate and at least 100 respondents with each of the ladder, pain and stress items | interviews: ladder 2009 to 2017, feelings 2008 to 2017; JEC deaths of despair 2015; WONDER deaths 2018 to 2023 | 95% CI −0.23 to −0.05 | 534 counties | respondents with the pain item in each county | CDC WONDER underlying cause of death |   |
| rent_d1 | $2,697 | dollars per month, HUD two-bedroom Fair Market Rent | unweighted mean over interviews of the FY2025 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent of the respondent's county (a stand-in for relative price levels in the interview years), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the least deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's county | HUD fiscal year 2025 | 95% CI $2,594 to $2,800 | 353,555 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents | The rent is an FY2025 area standard, shared by the counties of a metro, used here only as a proxy for relative price levels. |
| rent_d10 | $943 | dollars per month, HUD two-bedroom Fair Market Rent | unweighted mean over interviews of the FY2025 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent of the respondent's county (a stand-in for relative price levels in the interview years), interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the most deprived tenth of interviews, ranked by the Area Deprivation Index of the respondent's county | HUD fiscal year 2025 | 95% CI $932 to $953 | 351,962 respondents | none (unweighted) | HUD Fair Market Rents | The rent is an FY2025 area standard, shared by the counties of a metro, used here only as a proxy for relative price levels. |
| share_enjoy | 86% | percent reporting enjoyment a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share of respondents who reported the feeling | respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the enjoyment item | interviews in the years the item was asked |   | 2,211,300 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| share_income_reported | 81% | percent of interviews that report a household income bracket | share of interviews with a household income bracket (unweighted count) | interviews with a county | 2008 to 2017 |   | 3,519,539 respondents | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| share_sad | 17% | percent reporting sadness a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share of respondents who reported the feeling | respondents with a ladder score and an answer to the sadness item | interviews in the years the item was asked |   | 2,054,693 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| share_zip_adi | 97.6% | percent of interviews with a county whose ZIP code has a ZCTA Area Deprivation Index | share of interviews that take a ZIP-area deprivation rank (the ZIP code is treated as the ZCTA of the same number) | interviews with a county | ADI 2023 |   | 3,519,539 respondents | none (unweighted count) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| slope_pooled | 0.250 | ladder points per household income bracket step | coefficient on the household income bracket (1 to 6) in a regression of the ladder score with no other terms, unweighted, errors clustered on county | respondents with a household income bracket and a ladder score | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.246 to 0.253 | 1,806,805 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| slope_pooled_with08 | 0.256 | ladder points per household income bracket step | the pooled income slope of the ladder recomputed with the 2008 ladder answers left in, unweighted, errors clustered on county | respondents with a household income bracket and a ladder score, including 2008 | interviews in 2008 to 2017 including the 2008 ladder, which carries a question-order artifact | 95% CI 0.252 to 0.259 | 2,074,160 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| slope_within | 0.251 | ladder points per household income bracket step | coefficient on the household income bracket (1 to 6) in a regression of the ladder score with county fixed effects, unweighted, errors clustered on county | respondents with a household income bracket and a ladder score | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.247 to 0.255 | 1,806,803 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| step_age_sex_county | −0.30 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band and sex, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.36 to −0.23 | 350,199 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| step_edu_county | −0.11 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex and three-level education, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.15 to −0.07 | 350,199 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| step_edu_zip | −0.21 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex and three-level education, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme ZIP area tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.25 to −0.17 | 343,365 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| step_income_county | +0.13 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme tenths after comparing respondents within cells of five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI 0.10 to 0.16 | 350,199 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| step_none_county | −0.27 | ladder points, most deprived tenth minus least deprived tenth | gap between the extreme tenths on the interviews that report every characteristic, before any adjustment, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents with age, sex, race, education, household income and a county rent in the two extreme county tenths | interviews in 2009 to 2017 | 95% CI −0.34 to −0.21 | 350,199 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| stress_inc1 | 43.6% | percent reporting stress a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the poorest household income bracket | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 43.4% to 43.9% | 441,398 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| stress_inc6 | 37.7% | percent reporting stress a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the richest household income bracket | interviews in 2008 to 2017 | 95% CI 37.3% to 38.0% | 528,004 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| stress_q1 | 37.4% | percent reporting stress a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the lowest fifth of interviews, ranked by the deaths-of-despair rate of the respondent's county | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 36.9% to 37.9% | 465,362 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| stress_q5 | 36.4% | percent reporting stress a lot of the day yesterday | unweighted share, interval clustered by the respondent's county | respondents in the highest fifth of interviews, ranked by the deaths-of-despair rate of the respondent's county | interviews 2008 to 2017; deaths of despair 2015 | 95% CI 36.1% to 36.8% | 474,370 respondents | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| stress_range_2to6 | 2.3 | percentage points (highest minus lowest bracket) | the highest minus the lowest unweighted share reporting stress among the second to sixth household income brackets | respondents in the five household income brackets above the poorest | interviews in 2008 to 2017 |   |   | none (unweighted) | Gallup U.S. Daily Poll |   |
| vsplit_between | 29.7 | percent of the variance of tract life expectancy | share of the population-weighted variance of tract life expectancy at birth between counties, counting states and counties within states together (the sum of the two canonical shares from b2.canon.variance_split) | residents of non-institutional tracts with a life expectancy estimate (50 states and DC) | deaths in 2010 to 2015 (USALEEP, area-weighted onto 2020 tracts) |   | 78,008 tracts | ACS 2019-2023 tract population | USALEEP life expectancy |   |
| vsplit_county | 15.9 | percent of the variance of tract life expectancy | share of the population-weighted variance of tract life expectancy at birth between counties within states (sum-of-squares decomposition) | residents of non-institutional tracts with a life expectancy estimate (50 states and DC) | deaths in 2010 to 2015 (USALEEP, area-weighted onto 2020 tracts) |   | 78,008 tracts | ACS 2019-2023 tract population | USALEEP life expectancy | Connecticut's nine planning regions stand in for its counties. The tract estimates are modeled; their mean squared standard error equals 26.7 percent of the total variance and sits inside the within-county share. |
| vsplit_state | 13.7 | percent of the variance of tract life expectancy | share of the population-weighted variance of tract life expectancy at birth between states (sum-of-squares decomposition) | residents of non-institutional tracts with a life expectancy estimate (50 states and DC) | deaths in 2010 to 2015 (USALEEP, area-weighted onto 2020 tracts) |   | 78,008 tracts | ACS 2019-2023 tract population | USALEEP life expectancy | Connecticut's nine planning regions stand in for its counties. The tract estimates are modeled; their mean squared standard error equals 26.7 percent of the total variance and sits inside the within-county share. |

## Definitions

- Survey weights: Numbers attached to survey respondents that say how many people in the population each one represents, so that results describe the whole population and not only the people who answered.
- Cantril ladder: A survey question that asks people to place their life on a ladder whose bottom step is the worst possible life and whose top step is the best possible. It measures how people evaluate their life as a whole, not how they felt yesterday.
- Area Deprivation Index (ADI): A score that ranks neighborhoods by income, education, employment and housing conditions drawn from the American Community Survey. In this book a higher national percentile means a more deprived neighborhood.
- ZCTA: ZIP Code Tabulation Area, the Census Bureau's approximation of a ZIP code as a set of census blocks. It lets census data be reported by ZIP code, though some ZIP codes have no matching ZCTA.
- ZIP code: A postal delivery code assigned by the U.S. Postal Service. It describes mail routes, not a fixed area, so ZIP-keyed data must be matched to ZCTAs before they are mapped with census data.
- SD units (SEDA): Test scores stated in units of the typical spread of scores around the national average, so that a score reads as the number of such spreads above or below the national average. SEDA also reports scores in grade levels, which are a separate scale.
- Fixed effects: A regression adjustment that gives each group, such as each county, its own baseline. The estimate then rests on differences within groups.

## Methods

This chapter compares Gallup interviewees across tenths of county deprivation, first as they are and then within cells of age, sex, race, education and household income. The extract has no survey weights, so every estimate is unweighted, and an interval around an unweighted average does not make it nationally representative. The ladder gap between the most and least deprived tenths changes sign with the income measure: it turns positive at the same nominal household income and is near zero or below once county rent levels are allowed for. The ladder and the feelings are asked in different years and are never combined.

### Interview sample

Gallup respondent rows are read inside Box and aggregated; nothing at respondent level is published. Every Gallup estimate is unweighted, because the extract has no survey weights, and levels can differ from the weighted figures Gallup publishes.

Every comparison within cells uses one sample, the interviews that report every cell variable and a county rent, so the cell means come from the same interviews at every step.

### Questions and years

The ladder is scored 0 to 10; the second ladder item asks where the respondent expects to stand in about five years. Both ladder items are cut to 2009 to 2017, because political questions preceded the ladder in 2008 and the 2008 ladder runs low (Deaton 2012; Gallup removed the questions for part of the sample in early January 2009 and added a transition question in April 2009). The ladder is asked of nearly all respondents in 2010 to 2012, of 85% in 2009 and of 49% from 2013 to 2017, so the pooled ladder figures weight 2009 to 2012 most.

Feelings are answers (yes or no) to whether the respondent experienced the feeling during a lot of the day yesterday. The feelings are not affected by the 2008 question order and keep 2008, so the pooled feelings figures weight 2008 to 2012 most. Each item is counted in the years it was asked, which are listed in the item-coverage figure, and a few stray answers in years when an item was not asked are dropped.

The ladder and the feelings are never combined into one index.

Explains Table 1.

### County assignment

The county of an interview comes from the respondent's ZIP code and is approximate near county lines; interviews with no county are dropped.

County deprivation is the mean of the Area Deprivation Index 2023 national ranks of a county's tracts, weighted by 2019-2023 tract population (Connecticut tracts move to the eight legacy counties, the retired Alaska and South Dakota codes move to their successors, Puerto Rico is excluded, and the split county of Valdez-Cordova has no value). ZIP-area deprivation is the 2023 ZCTA national rank of the ZIP code's number, an area-weighted approximation; a ZIP code is not a ZCTA, the ZIP-to-ZCTA crosswalk is not staged, and Connecticut has no ZCTAs. Deciles of deprivation are cut once on every interview that has the measure, so each holds about a tenth of interviews.

County means for the correlations need at least 100 respondents with the item, and the same counties enter every row. The deaths-of-despair rate is a single 2015 cross-section for the larger counties, joined on the county code. The Joint Economic Committee's file keeps it as a cross-check series and does not document its population base or age adjustment, so the chapter checks it against CDC WONDER: on counties whose drug, alcohol and suicide counts are published in every year 2018 to 2023 (complete counties, as in the chapter on overdose, alcohol and suicide), the two rates correlate +0.81 across 534 counties; the WONDER rate sums three crude rates and includes suicides by drug poisoning in both the drug and the suicide rate.

### Adjusted comparisons

Comparing respondents within cells subtracts from each respondent's value the mean of everyone in the same cell (five-year age band (age capped at 85), sex, race, three-level education and household income bracket) and adds the overall mean; the adjusted group means then compare like with like. Education has three levels in the cells (a six-level item gives 0.13 for the main comparison, against +0.13 with three levels) and ages above the oldest five-year band share it.

The sign of the ladder gap depends on how income is measured. Household income is the harmonized six-bracket variable, in nominal dollars; the top bracket has no upper limit. The price sensitivities add a quintile of the county's HUD two-bedroom Fair Market Rent for fiscal year 2025, or its logarithm as a linear control, to the cells; counties in a metro share one rent, New England towns are averaged to legacy counties with HUD's 2022 population, and the FY2025 rent stands in for relative price levels in the interview years.

The equal-county version averages the cell-adjusted values within each county and then compares the means of counties with at least the survey floor of interviews, each county counted once, with a bootstrap over counties.

Explains Table 2.

### Uncertainty

Intervals for means, shares and differences are 95% intervals clustered by county (t distribution with the number of counties minus one). A bootstrap over counties resamples whole counties to see how much an estimate varies; the correlations across counties, the intraclass correlation and the share of a gap that adjustment removes use a bootstrap over whole counties with 2,000 draws (seed 12345, shared draws within a statistic). The intraclass correlation is the one-way ANOVA estimator.

### Four rankings of the same places

The comparison follows the book's ranking switch rule, fixed on October 28, 2026 before any of these gradients was computed. The main gradient of the chapter is recomputed under four rankings of the same places, with the outcome, period, weights, bins and intervals unchanged: the published ADI; a standardized index that applies the ADI's coefficients to its measures after standardizing each one across tracts; median household income; and the share of adults 25 and older with a bachelor's degree or more. The three alternatives come from ACS tract estimates for 2019 to 2023, the period of the ADI.

All four rankings use the same places, the 3,121 counties that have the outcome and all four rankings, so the ADI panel can differ slightly from the chapter's main figure. Tracts enter only if they have every input of the standardized index, which leaves out tracts without a median rent, home value or mortgage cost. A respondent's county takes the population-weighted mean of the ranks of its common-sample tracts, with Connecticut tracts moved to the eight legacy counties and retired Alaska and South Dakota codes moved to their successors, and the tenths are tenths of interviews, cut once on every interview whose county has all four rankings, as in the chapter's main figure.

A pattern counts as changed when the worse end switches sides, when the two ends differ under one ranking and not the other, or when the rank correlation of bin order and bin mean falls on the other side of 0.9 and moves by at least 0.1.

Explains Table 8.

## What these data cannot show

The unit of the chapter is the person, but the place measures describe counties and ZIP areas, so a gap between tenths of places mixes the places with the people in them. Comparing respondents within cells handles only the characteristics the survey records. It does not handle health, disability, work or family, which go with pain. Household income is in nominal dollars and the rent file is a single fiscal year 2025 standard shared within metros, so the price comparison is a rough proxy, and neither it nor the nominal comparison identifies what places do to residents. The randomized Moving to Opportunity experiment is the evidence on that question, and it covers neither the ladder nor these feelings.

The survey has no weights, and the interviews are a repeated cross-section, not a panel, so the chapter shows differences between people and not changes within them. Pooled figures weight 2009 to 2012 most for the ladder and 2008 to 2012 for the feelings, and the chapter does not remove differences between years. Each feeling is a yes or no answer to whether the respondent had it during a lot of the day yesterday, which records neither intensity nor duration, and the ladder is a whole-number rating whose rungs different people may anchor differently. Answers given in one interview can color each other, as the 2008 ladder shows, and the survey cannot separate that for the other items.

The county is derived from the ZIP code and is approximate near county lines. ZIP-area deprivation treats a ZIP code as the ZCTA of the same number and drops Connecticut. County deprivation is built from Area Deprivation Index ranks that include income and education, so the index overlaps with the respondent characteristics used in the comparisons. The index is the 2023 release, built on ACS data for 2019 to 2023, and the interviews are from 2008 to 2017, which assumes that the ranking of places persisted. The deaths-of-despair rate is a single year for larger counties, a cross-check series with an undocumented population base and age adjustment, and its correlations are across counties, so they do not show that the people who report pain are the people who die.

Chapter 4.5, Mental distress in young adults (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/mental-distress-in-young-adults) measures frequent mental distress in a different survey with survey weights, and its estimates are not directly comparable with the unweighted Gallup levels here.

## References

1. Cantril, Hadley (1965). The Pattern of Human Concerns. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
2. Deaton, Angus (2012). The financial crisis and the well-being of Americans: 2011 OEP Hicks Lecture. Oxford Economic Papers 64(1): 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpr051
3. Kahneman, Daniel; Deaton, Angus (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(38): 16489-16493. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011492107
4. Killingsworth, Matthew A.; Kahneman, Daniel; Mellers, Barbara (2023). Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120(10): e2208661120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208661120
5. Graham, Carol; Pinto, Sergio (2019). Unequal hopes and lives in the USA: optimism, race, place, and premature mortality. Journal of Population Economics 32(2): 665-733. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-018-0687-y
6. Ludwig, Jens; Duncan, Greg J.; Gennetian, Lisa A.; Katz, Lawrence F.; Kessler, Ronald C.; Kling, Jeffrey R.; Sanbonmatsu, Lisa (2012). Neighborhood effects on the long-term well-being of low-income adults. Science 337(6101): 1505-1510. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1224648
7. Case, Anne; Deaton, Angus (2020). Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
8. Case, Anne; Deaton, Angus (2015). Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(49): 15078-15083. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1518393112

## Provenance

- Pipeline version: 0.1.0
- Build script: book2/chapters/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/build.py (sha256 c10703bb40e85185d9a6f2ec0f51d6520d5ce5834aa06016094a33af1474a9a4)
- Built on: 2026-10-07
- Site commit: c2b1ff3309cb4a10833f884da91ac0057a66ad0a

Inputs:

| File | Size (bytes) | SHA-256, first 1 MB | SHA-256, last 1 MB |
| --- | ---: | --- | --- |
| book2/chapters/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/wellbeing_data.py | 43,672 | dc8fb82fa180829f225d1c6f6435480a8f83c924147a32d66d7f5510eec2b225 | dc8fb82fa180829f225d1c6f6435480a8f83c924147a32d66d7f5510eec2b225 |
| data/analytic/tract_atlas.parquet | 39,659,925 | 29d5e4d943552d54aeb6ba92aadc939d9bd15bdea553c78357dbd516757be627 | 1e10d1ecf722340f23ee2212d4999a90250f85b65fa89b39e32db06d9472e22e |
| data/geo/dim_geo.parquet | 1,180,921 | 29d5e4d943552d54aeb6ba92aadc939d9bd15bdea553c78357dbd516757be627 | e58c8c488df54ab3187f5461f179322afdc49c9bd2315404003fe1272eea32c3 |
| data/raw/acs/deprivation_components_2019_2023/tract.parquet | 13,197,793 | 5545cde2cbe96a8b56e468d65388248a241aa6bd300d3c9e325d08d3f86b11da | 5c8ec454d066988b0f1a01aaa6ed34ebfc05d162e01cf9c6bb01f9198cbaff12 |
| data/raw/gallup/gallup_us.parquet | 209,530,597 | b57c719f2c1d4749e43b1a70ca6dbd97f0480a0b538983091eea7eadfec40551 | b8167235969e50da6143a0e8d3e74ffb8f7c231743acc9fb2a78130a602af6f5 |
| data/staged/adi/adi_atlas_tract2020_2023.parquet | 798,078 | 5e409bc212ff871def780fa27b4cf8b616d9da420b2b9f6455517eddcd8c1a95 | 5e409bc212ff871def780fa27b4cf8b616d9da420b2b9f6455517eddcd8c1a95 |
| data/staged/adi/adi_atlas_zcta_2023.parquet | 766,397 | 5f53b97a981f9e88dd58af9e756554119580de309d750b7af6c2206bd79b6415 | 5f53b97a981f9e88dd58af9e756554119580de309d750b7af6c2206bd79b6415 |
| data/staged/crosswalks/ct_tract2020_to_old_county.parquet | 15,842 | 961ef39f31596ef65fca2c67d5f2f63e533c5dc9b49745d3bb6437844e4b831d | 961ef39f31596ef65fca2c67d5f2f63e533c5dc9b49745d3bb6437844e4b831d |
| data/staged/housing/hud_fmr_area_fy2025.parquet | 220,184 | e8acd06036b1bf0c46d350385c9cf08de423cd7145ead42ac2b6bf9367361b7d | e8acd06036b1bf0c46d350385c9cf08de423cd7145ead42ac2b6bf9367361b7d |
| data/staged/life_expectancy/usaleep_tract2020.parquet | 1,316,169 | 9c9c7f103791b75eddba74e68a89804efdf2486b6b66bb4bc02a46ba5bf8bc23 | 27317107be2465d9fd5e83271dea0cd6e915ee419e2802bedc28747d0a41d38f |
| data/staged/mortality/wonder_ucd_alcohol_county_2018_2024.parquet | 289,631 | 478b6b5f8ffa061bcca1df84162d1e169babeb7832bc9818379af9be382a778f | 478b6b5f8ffa061bcca1df84162d1e169babeb7832bc9818379af9be382a778f |
| data/staged/mortality/wonder_ucd_drug_county_2018_2024.parquet | 308,988 | b0e5cb6dfb44fc1ce53a192faf74cb84277bb5d601a3fc32b65078a7ec03bbf1 | b0e5cb6dfb44fc1ce53a192faf74cb84277bb5d601a3fc32b65078a7ec03bbf1 |
| data/staged/mortality/wonder_ucd_suicide_county_2018_2024.parquet | 290,192 | 448558540a3f42296acf7f66a945f7c6794fd6f4dc9c7032a18a3d105d0541f1 | 448558540a3f42296acf7f66a945f7c6794fd6f4dc9c7032a18a3d105d0541f1 |
| data/staged/mortality/wonder_ucd_suicide_state_2018_2024.parquet | 15,948 | 7588fe51ddda48e57e88852172442b4d2bf64689882e600ebf342668ff79ea1a | 7588fe51ddda48e57e88852172442b4d2bf64689882e600ebf342668ff79ea1a |
| data/staged/ses/acs5_tract2020_2019_2023.parquet | 7,232,424 | 5fe6f730a35225f14d5d8abfc6b9bce58b52e545f309a7eac74f1dae74d7a31c | 7b4a2475b3852d3f91804716a04566ef8ceadacec2be9fb85f5eb642078efac6 |
| data/staged/social_capital/jec_social_capital_county.parquet | 460,297 | 1f042e817f25c79bc96cf0a256133c4068e655bd10caff55c2ae0dc3c8f7df22 | 1f042e817f25c79bc96cf0a256133c4068e655bd10caff55c2ae0dc3c8f7df22 |
| data/staged/svi/svi_tract2020_2022.parquet | 17,740,415 | cb3860d8edc2aaf1f2a02211a58f7a0b80457eb6ad9a37b5ec8abb2d5da9da10 | e371a4a696d5bed05d54ad7c5b6ca2504508805b847ec415c2322be7f66ec2b2 |

Outputs:

| File | SHA-256 |
| --- | --- |
| facts.json | ed1377d46cea9f92d315518cf23107c167643246e6f909612c77af42aa4f2748 |
| figures/alt_rankings.json | 3eac056a094f131714b25d7ccf86a56f742087fb29f3672721187b0e41f7d2a0 |
| figures/feelings_by_deprivation.json | 99a6721eb790cdd7c6b7d160ce88464b3cfb671b6df07e039b85abf61a2de409 |
| figures/felt_despair.json | 8e31b0d405922f512bfc224fcf4184fb48724c411bd9dc41b1d0fe4b5dbc4c2f |
| figures/income_gradient.json | 6bffedc2e663b1b57dd9961bbe3d220ac8b4c2bcb4ed58c2b17d7928f249cb1e |
| figures/income_within_places.json | eaedcd97d39a29a27cc3c95c9288ac734e1d2cdb3949e539e95d2170ed115c49 |
| figures/item_coverage.json | c235091f38314038f947f7941c5b788c9fcad1b44670c4debc284c5e533629bb |
| figures/ladder_and_feelings.json | 9fc753bc28fa69b4cd62807b730eaef4dd10cc64b46f0968579cec32d41bb428 |
| figures/ladder_by_deprivation.json | b563618cd2af45b968f7d7d33c2b7b1c36d5f02d2f51832cd765483997aff533 |
| meta.json | 46f9840e1a9f0ed18e57c20ba6706658e4b1834dd324c6a9821293151c5bf339 |
| refs.json | af3d3761f67ed01c066f1a1224342ebede46f2a79cc9e31ae92c4bc16acb298b |

## Machine formats

- Report (HTML): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/report
- Report (Markdown): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/report.md
- Every estimate (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/facts.json
- Table 1, figure "item_coverage" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/item_coverage.json
- Table 2, figure "ladder_by_deprivation" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/ladder_by_deprivation.json
- Table 3, figure "feelings_by_deprivation" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/feelings_by_deprivation.json
- Table 4, figure "income_gradient" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/income_gradient.json
- Table 5, figure "income_within_places" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/income_within_places.json
- Table 6, figure "ladder_and_feelings" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/ladder_and_feelings.json
- Table 7, figure "felt_despair" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/felt_despair.json
- Table 8, figure "alt_rankings" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/life-evaluation-and-daily-feelings/figures/alt_rankings.json
- Index of every report: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/llms.txt; all reports in one file: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/llms-full.txt