• The coronavirus pandemic and related restrictions have taken a toll on America’s mental health.
  • A new poll, conducted in late May, found that just 14% of Americans said they’re very happy. This marks a historic low.
  • A separate poll found that national pride is also at a historic low in the US amid the devastating pandemic and nationwide protests over police brutality and racism.
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Between a devastating pandemic and nationwide protests against police brutality, 2020 has been a year for the books. With roughly half of the year still left, polling shows that Americans are the unhappiest they’ve been in 50 years, while also exhibiting historically low levels of national pride.

On top of killing over 116,000 people in the US, COVID-19 has led to restrictions that have left millions of people unemployed and pushed the country further into a recession. Meanwhile, quarantines and social distancing guidelines have left many Americans feeling isolated.

In this context, it’s no surprise that the COVID Response Tracking Study, conducted in late May by NORC at the University of Chicago, found that just 14% of Americans said they’re very happy. Comparatively, 31% said the same in 2018.

“For about two decades, 3 in 10 Americans said that, taken all together, they are very happy. In 2020, the number of people who say they are very happy hit a historical low of 14%, a 17 percentage-point drop since 2018,” the survey said. “The percentage of people who described themselves as not too happy also spiked to an all-time high since the question was first asked in 1972.”

The study found that more Americans feel depressed right now than they did after the 9/11 terror attacks (38% vs. 33%).

Roughly 50% of Americans said they felt isolated at lease sometimes in the past four weeks, compared to roughly 23% of the public who said the same in 2018.

COVID-19 also seems to have taken a toll on levels of optimism about the future. "Only 42% believe that when their children are their age their standard of living will be better than their own, whereas 57% said the same in 2018. Since the question was asked in 1994, the previous low was 45% in 1994," the University of Chicago study said.

With the US as the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, and racism and police brutality prompting condemnation from the UN and demonstrations in countries across the world, it may also come as no big shock that patriotism has taken a hit in 2020 as well.

A new Gallup poll found that national pride is at a record low. Though most Americans say they are "extremely proud" (42%) or "very proud" (21%) to be American, both readings mark the lowest Gallup has recorded since it began polling on this issue in 2001.

Gallup said the poll took place from May 28 to June 4, a period in which the country was reacting to the brutal death of George Floyd and the nationwide protests catalyzed by it, and President Donald Trump's "controversial responses" to these developments.

While Republicans have historically been more likely to say they're extremely proud to be American, Gallup found that even this group has lost a sense of national pride. The latest poll found a nine-percentage-point decrease.

The poll also found that the share of white Americans who express extreme pride in the nation has fallen below 50% for the first time (down to 49%), alongside a massive drop in the percentage of nonwhites who say the same: from 36% in 2019 to 24% in 2020.

Based on the polls findings, only one age group (65 and older) was found to have a majority that said they were extremely proud to be American, which was not the case even a year ago.