happiness USA 1972-2021

happiness.R

# Data from: https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/trends
# Inspiration: https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/1487094406159110147

library(tidyverse)
library(readxl)
library(geomtextpath)

FILES = list.files(path = "~/Downloads/", pattern = "happy", full.names = TRUE)
DF_raw = map_df(FILES, read_excel, skip = 11)

DF = DF_raw %>% drop_na() %>% select(-...1) %>%
  mutate(file = c("Very happy", "Pretty happy", "Not too happy")) %>% 
  select(file, everything()) %>% 
  pivot_longer(matches("[0-9]"), names_to = "year") %>% 
  mutate(value = gsub("(.*) \n.*", "\\1", value) %>% as.numeric() / 100)

PLOT = DF %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = year, value, label = file, group = file, color = file)) +
  geom_point() +
  geom_smooth(alpha = .1, color = "darkgrey") +
  geom_labelpath(text_smoothing = 30) +
  theme_minimal() +
  scale_y_continuous(labels = scales::percent_format(accuracy = 1), limits  = c(0, max(DF$value)), n.breaks = 10) +
  ggthemes::theme_fivethirtyeight() +
  theme(legend.position = "none") +
  labs(title = "Life Satisfaction USA",
       subtitle = "General happiness (1972-2021)",
       caption = " \nBy @gorkang \n \nData: https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/ -> Gender & Marriage -> Life Satisfaction")

PLOT

ggsave("~/Downloads/happiness.png", PLOT, width = 16, height = 9)