We in the arts often talk about the benefits our chosen vocation/avocation has for the economy, education and general well-being. In light of this, I was interested to see the recent Gallup poll measuring well-being across the country for 2010. The contribution of the arts aren’t explicitly or even clearly implicitly measured in the poll which is conducted throughout the year surveying people on life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors and basic access. While the arts don’t seem to factor in, I thought it is still valuable for arts people to look at the factors that comprise a person’s sense of general well-being.
I was surprised to see that people in the northern part of the country had such high reported well-being in comparison with those in the southern part of the country. The survey is conducted throughout the year so it isn’t impacted heavily by people specifically caught in the monster snowstorms of the past winter. Still, it was interesting to see that people from places stereotyped as having bad winters like the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana and Minnesota reported well-being in the higher range versus those in the south who generally have milder all around weather. I personally didn’t mind the winter weather of the Northeast as I was growing up and perhaps that generally applies to those who live in the northern climes regardless of how much they may complain.
Gallup has charted out a multiple year comparison of each of these factors on another graph. The end of 2008 was not a happy time for a lot of people. People seem to have developed a much better sense of well-being in the years since. I obviously can’t say that this is the cause, but when I looked at the healthy behaviors subgraph on that page, though there is always a downward trend after July/August, it amused me to think the big plunge that always occurs in November through December is due to poor eating habits during the holidays.
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While I didn’t intend for today’s post to end up as a segue to this when I spotted the well-being survey last week, obviously the people of Japan are not experiencing much well-being at the moment. If you are of a mind to donate to an organization providing help to Japan, and there are many, may I suggest these three are a good place to start.
