Marital status has a powerful impact on the levels of both happiness and optimism. Marital status and religious habits both have a strong influence on happiness. Those who attend church weekly or almost weekly are happier than those who attend less often and those who read the Bible daily or weekly are happier than those who read it less often. Republicans are happier than Democrats and independents. Increased optimism about the economic conditions in the United States today is related to higher levels of personal happiness, and Americans who are satisfied with the current state of affairs in the country are personally happier than those who are dissatisfied with the U.S. Americans living in the southern and western United States are slightly happier than those living in other regions.
City dwellers are slightly happier than their rural and suburban counterparts.
As with happiness, marital status significantly impacts optimism, particularly for women. Those who classify their political ideology as moderate are more optimistic about the future than are conservatives or liberals and, while Republicans are happier than members of the other political parties on a personal level, Democrats are somewhat more optimistic about the future of the country than are Republicans or independents. White Americans are slightly less optimistic about the future of the U.S. than are nonwhites. Optimism increases with income and education. Eighty-four percent of those with postgraduate degrees are optimistic.