Experience Management

U.S. Well-Being Increases for Everyone Except Hispanics

XM Institute has been tracking the sentiment of U.S. consumers as part of our ongoing consumer studies for more than a decade. To understand the overall quality of life of the U.S. population, we created the well-being index (WBi), which is the average of three measurements representing the percentage of American adults (18 and older) who agree with these statements:

I am typically happy
I am healthy
I am financially secure

Last year, in our analysis of the well-being disparity between ethnicities, we found that African Americans had the lowest well-being index score and saw the most dramatic decline in well-being between 2019 and 2020. Asian and Hispanic well-being scores also dipped, while Caucasians’ well-being rose slightly. When examining our Q3 2021 data, we found that:

Well-being improved for most segments… Overall well-being rose four percentage-points for African Americans after its fall in 2020 and rose five percentage-points among Asian Americans.
…except for Hispanics. In 2021, overall well-being dropped another point from 2020 for Hispanics, bringing their WBi to a score of 58% – the same as African Americans.
Financial security continues to be the largest gap between groups. Fifty-four percent of Caucasians report they are financially secure, which is 12 points higher than African Americans – the same size gap as in 2020.
The health component saw the greatest increase. While scores for happiness and financial security did tick up from 2020 to 2021, these were smaller than the gains in feeling healthy; both African Americans and Asians saw an eight-point gain in the health component year-over-year.

This data comes from XM Institute’s U.S. consumer studies, and results are analyzed based on self-described ethnicity. We set sample quotas to be demographically representative to the U.S. population for gender, age, income, and region, in addition to ethnicity. The 2021 data comes from 9,055 respondents in our XM Institute Q3 2021 U.S. Consumer Study.

The bottom line: Well-being continues to be unevenly distributed across the U.S. population.

Bruce Temkin, XMP, CCXP, is the Head of Qualtrics XM Institute

Talia Quaadgras is a Senior Research Associate with Qualtrics XM Institute

Topics well-being XM Institute

Bruce Temkin // Head of the Qualtrics XM Institute

Bruce Temkin leads the Qualtrics XM Institute and is widely viewed as an experience management (XM) visionary. He has helped executives across many of the world’s leading brands dramatically improve business results by engaging the hearts and minds of their employees, customers, and partners. Given his work in establishing the discipline of CX, Bruce is often referred to as the “Godfather of Customer Experience.” He co-founded and was the initial chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. Prior to joining Qualtrics, Bruce ran Temkin Group, a renowned research and advisory firm, and was a VP at Forrester Research, where he led many parts of the research organization, including CX, eBusiness, financial services, and B2B. He was the most-read analyst at Forrester for 13 consecutive quarters.

Talia Quaadgras // Research Program Manager with XM Institute

Talia Quaadgras is a Research Program Manager for the Qualtrics XM Institute. They manage the team’s data-based research studies and associated reports based on these studies. Talia also supports the larger success of the XM Institute team by assisting with content creation, tracking team metrics and activity, and maintaining the Institute’s social media presence. Talia graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs and Economics.

May 20, 2025

Customer Experience