If you're trying to apply a single metric across a massively diverse geographical area like the united states, it's quite possible that the same question could draw some different data in different places. I'm sure it is true that what goes into being satisfied, what matters to you? That's got a vary by zip god, by city block. When ed dener first started studying subjective well being decades ago, he was discouraged by his elders of studying this. Lucy goosy, impossible to measure a thing said, it couldn't be pinned down empirically. Can't be done. It depends on what you think.