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Features for Senior Citizens

Senior Citizens Most Likely to Say They are Very Satisfied with Their Lives

But, by far the least likely to say things have improved or will get better ???

Aug. 17, 2007 – Senior citizens were by far the most likely to tell a recent Harris Poll that they are “very satisfied” with the life they lead. Harris calls their oldest age group the “Matures” and they are people age 62 and older. Sixty-nine percent of this age group said they were very satisfied with life, while only 56% of all adults made this choice.

Harris combined two of the questions choices – very satisfied and somewhat satisfied – to come up with a total percent of those satisfied with their lives. Ninety-three percent of Matures fall into this combined category, but, interestingly, that is one percent short of the 94% of all age groups.

However, the Matures were by far the least likely to say their lives have improved during the last five years, and the least likely to expect improvement in the next five years.

“Overall, Americans are definitely satisfied with the life they lead,” says the Harris analysis.

“Almost all (94%) say they are satisfied, with over half of U.S. adults (56%) saying they are very satisfied with the life they lead and 38 percent somewhat satisfied. Just six percent are not satisfied with the life they lead.”

Harris notes that this level of satisfaction is up slightly from earlier this decade: in 2005, nine out of ten were satisfied and in 2003, 91 percent were satisfied with the life they led.

Although the combined score for “satisfied” was about equal in all four of the age groups measured by Harris there were some interesting generational differences.

Echo Boomers (those aged 18-30) are evenly split with 48 percent saying they are very satisfied and 47 percent who are somewhat satisfied.

Matures (those aged 62 and older), on the other hand, are clearly of a different mind as over two-thirds (69%) are very satisfied while just one-quarter (24%) are somewhat satisfied with the life they are leading.

This Harris Poll was conducted by telephone by Harris Interactive among a nationwide cross section of 1,010 U.S. adults between July 10 and 16, 2007.

Looking Back Five Years

Harris also asked participants if their lives have improved over the last five years and, again, found older Americans differing from the young.

While Echo Boomers and Generation Xers (those aged 31-42) are more likely to say their lives have improved (66% and 71% respectively), Matures are not of the same mind.

Just one-quarter (27%) of this oldest generation say their lives improved in the past five years while over half (52%) say it has stayed about the same.

Looking Ahead Five Years

If things have gotten better in the past five years, Americans expect things to be even better in the next five years. Three in five (62%) say expect their personal situation to improve in the next five years while three in ten (30%) say they expect it will stay the same and just 7 percent expect it to get worse.

The number of those who expect things to stay the same is the highest it has been – in 2003, 26 percent said things would stay the same while in 2005, just 22 percent felt this way.

The younger you are, the better you feel about the future, says Harris.

Well over four in five of Echo Boomers (85%) and 82 percent of Gen Xers feel their personal situation will improve compared to just 58 percent of Baby Boomers (those aged 43-61).

Matures are of a completely different mind in looking ahead as just under one-quarter (23%) expect their personal situation to improve while over half (58%) say things will stay about the same and 18 percent feel it will get worse.

So What?

When asked about the country, people do not feel things in the United States are going well as just 19 percent say things in the country are moving in the right direction. But, when asked about their personal lives, not only are they satisfied, they’ve become more so in the past five years and expect to be things to be even better five years from now. People not only can, but are separating out the negativity they feel in the country as a whole, and are still content with where they personally are with their lives.

Overall Life Satisfaction

"On the whole, are you very satisfied, fairly satisfied, not very satisfied, or not at all satisfied with the life you lead?"

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

* Less than 0.5%; "-" No response

Present Life Situation Compared to Five Years Ago

"If you compare your present situation with five years ago, would you say it has improved, stayed about the same or got worse?"

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

* Less than 0.5%; "-" No response

Expected Personal Situation in Five Years

"In the course of the next five years, do you expect your personal situation to improve, to stay about the same or to get worse?"

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

"-" No response

Read more of this poll, click here to Harris

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