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Native Americans’ experience of chronic distress in the USA

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  • David G. Blanchflower

    (Dartmouth College
    University of Glasgow)

  • Donn. L. Feir

    (University of Victoria
    Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
    IZA)

Abstract

Over ten million Native Americans live in the USA today, but their experiences are often obscured in empirical research. While the rise in despair, or chronic distress, among White Americans is much discussed, what is not discussed is what has happened for the first Americans. We demonstrate that levels of consistently poor mental health were higher among Native peoples than among White or Black Americans in every year between 1993 and 2020, and these levels have been rising. We find this pattern among those over the age of 30 but less so for the young. Chronic distress seems to be lowest among Native peoples living in the seven states with the largest proportion of Native Americans as a fraction of their population: Alaska, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota. In our judgment, these facts are important and not widely known. This stands in stark contrast to the enormous scholarly and media interest in declining physiological well-being among White Americans.

Suggested Citation

  • David G. Blanchflower & Donn. L. Feir, 2023. "Native Americans’ experience of chronic distress in the USA," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 885-909, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:36:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s00148-022-00910-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-022-00910-4
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    Cited by:

    1. David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2024. "The female happiness paradox," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-27, March.
    2. David G. Blanchflower & Carol L. Graham, 2022. "The Mid-Life Dip in Well-Being: a Critique," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 287-344, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Despair; Mental health; Native Americans; Indigenous peoples; Unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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