Optimism increases with income and education. Eighty-four percent of those with postgraduate degrees are optimistic. The impact of religious habits on optimism levels about the future is the reverse of their impact on happiness. Those who rarely read the Bible are more optimistic than are those who read it daily or weekly and those who attend church infrequently are more optimistic than are those who attend weekly or almost weekly. While optimism decreases slightly with age and men and women tend to express comparable levels of optimism, these patterns change when the two variables are considered simultaneously.
Men grow slightly more optimistic with age, while women grow slightly less optimistic.
Americans living in the Eastern region of the U.S. have slightly greater optimism regarding the future of the U.S. than do those living in other regions. Inhabitants of the Midwest have the lowest level of optimism. Americans living in urban and suburban communities are generally more optimistic than are those living in rural communities. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points.