The South just might rise again.
Southerners are the most likely to say the city where they live is getting better, according to the latest release from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
In fact, across the country, Americans are becoming more and more optimistic about where they live, the survey, which is based on telephone interviews with more than 15,000 Americans, found.
Americans were less optimistic about the future of the cities where they live during the economic downturn in 2009, with the percentage saying their city is “getting better” falling to 51.1 percent that year. There was not much improvement in 2010 or 2011, but began to recover in 2012. Now, 61.9 percent say the city they live in is getting better.
Among Southerners, the number rises to 65.2 percent, though Southern states have traditionally ranked low on Gallup measures of health and well-being. The least-optimistic Americans are East Coasters: only 57.2 percent of those surveyed said they feel optimistic about the future of their city. Those in the West and Midwest fall in the middle – with 62.5 percent and 60.8 percent feeling optimistic, respectively.
An increase in optimism coincides with a spike in American confidence in the national economy, according to previously released Gallup data.
Previously, Gallup pollsters asked more than 350,000 Americans whether they felt stressed during “a lot of the day yesterday” and used the data to rank states with the highest stress levels.
City Optimism Up Across All Regions, Remains Best in the South
Americans living in the South are the most likely to say the city where they live is getting better, as was the case in February 2009 when city optimism was at a low point nationwide. However, Americans in all regions of the country are now much more optimistic about where they live. Optimism increased the most in the West since February 2009 and increased the least in the East. Americans in the East are the least optimistic about their cities in 2013, as was the case in February 2009.
Bottom Line
Americans’ optimism about the city where they live climbed to a new high at the same time that their confidence in the economy and their standard of living perceptions did. Workers nationwide are also reporting some of the best job creation numbers in years. Together, these metrics reveal that Americans are at least feeling like economic conditions nationally, locally, and individually are improving.
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