New research published by Gallup and released on Wednesday, Feb. 2 revealed that Americans' state of happiness is not positive at all. 

The research was based on telephone interviews conducted between Jan. 3 and Jan. 16, 2022, with a random sample of 811 adults ages 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Gallup asked respondents how they feel about different aspects of life and politics over the past two decades. This year, on those 29 different measures, only 38% of Americans say they are satisfied.

In 2020, before the pandemic began, an average of 48% of Americans said they were satisfied. There was a big drop in 2021, when 41% indicated they were happy with what was happening.

Breaking down the results by aspects of life and policy issues, the results are very similar, reaching only 41% of people satisfied with different aspects of life issues measured consistently over the past two decades. These aspects include quality of life, the government system and its functioning, and the influence of organized religion. 

The Gallup poll also found that 58% of respondents are dissatisfied with the level of immigration in the country today, as opposed to 34% who say they are satisfied. 

On the other hand, the General Social Survey, which measures the level of happiness of Americans since 1972, had a drop in positive responses on the issue, as the percentage who said they were "very happy" did not exceed the percentage who said they were "not very happy" as in all surveys conducted before the pandemic.

In 2022, 24% indicated they were "not very happy," compared to 19% who said they were "very happy." The former is an all-time high, while the latter is an all-time low. The remaining respondents, as Christopher Ingraham noted, are in the "fairly happy" camp, which has not changed much since 2018.