Poll: Americans categorized as "suffering" reaches record high

The percentage of Americans classified as "suffering" reached its highest level on record last month, per a Gallup survey released Monday.

Driving the news: 5.6% of Americans said they are "suffering" in July, up from the previous high of 4.8% measured in April.

• July's result is also higher than all previous estimates during the COVID-19 era, per Gallup.

The big picture: The percentage of U.S. adults classified as "thriving" has declined steadily since it reached a record high of 59.2% in June 2021.

• July's estimate of 51.2% adults classified as "thriving" is an 18-month low, per Gallup.
• The percentage of Republicans who are classified as suffering has doubled since June 2021, Gallup found, and among Democrats, it has jumped to 5.4%, almost double the 2.9% from a year ago.
• In addition to general life ratings, the percentage of Americans who report experiencing stress is up to 48%, compared with 43% in July 2021.
• Gallup began asking the life quality question in 2008, when, during the Great Recession, about 3.8% of Americans were categorized as suffering.

Between the lines: Gallup classifies Americans as "thriving," "struggling" or "suffering" based on how respondents rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale from zero to 10.

• Respondents who rate both their current and future lives a 4 or lower are classified as suffering, while those who rate their current life a 7 or higher are classified as thriving.

State of play: "Economic conditions are likely a major contributing factor to these worsening scores," Gallup notes.

• "Despite the addition of 528,000 new jobs in July, persistently high inflation is creating a drag on the Gallup Economic Confidence Index, which is now at its lowest point since the Great Recession in 2009," per Gallup.

Go deeper... Americans no longer judge the economy by the unemployment rate, new paper finds