Americans are the unhappiest they've been in half a century and have historically low levels of national pride, according to new polling

• The coronavirus pandemic and related restrictions have taken a toll on America's mental health.
• A poll conducted in late May found that just 14% of respondents said they were very happy. This marks a historic low.
• A separate poll showed national pride was also at a historic low in the US amid the devastating pandemic and nationwide protests over police brutality and racism.

Between a devastating pandemic and nationwide protests against police brutality, 2020 has been a year for the books. With about half the year still left, polling shows that Americans are the unhappiest they've been in 50 years and exhibiting historically low levels of national pride.

On top of COVID-19 killing over 116,000 people in the US, it has led to restrictions that have left millions of people unemployed and pushed the country further into a recession. Meanwhile, quarantines and social-distancing guidelines have left many Americans feeling isolated.

In this context, it's no surprise that in the COVID Response Tracking Study, conducted in late May by NORC at the University of Chicago, just 14% of American respondents said they were very happy. Comparatively, 31% said the same in 2018.

"For about two decades, 3 in 10 Americans said that, taken all together, they are very happy. In 2020, the number of people who say they are very happy hit a historical low of 14%, a 17 percentage-point drop since 2018," the survey said. "The percentage of people who described themselves as not too happy also spiked to an all-time high since the question was first asked in 1972."

The study found that more Americans felt depressed now than they did after the 9/11 terror attacks (38% of respondents versus 33%).

About 50% of respondents said they felt isolated at least sometimes in the past four weeks, compared with about 23% who said the same in 2018.

COVID-19 also seems to have taken a toll on levels of optimism about the future. "Only 42% believe that when their children are their age their standard of living will be better than their own, whereas 57% said the same in 2018. Since the question was asked in 1994, the previous low was 45% in 1994," the University of Chicago study said.

With the US as the center of the coronavirus pandemic, and racism and police brutality prompting condemnation from the UN and demonstrations in countries across the world, it may also come as no big shock that patriotism has taken a hit in 2020 as well.

A new Gallup poll found that national pride was at a record low. Though most respondents said they were "extremely proud" (42%) or "very proud" (21%) to be American, both readings mark the lowest Gallup has recorded since it began polling on this issue in 2001.

Gallup said the poll took place from May 28 to June 4, a period in which the country was reacting to the killing of George Floyd and the nationwide protests catalyzed by it, as well as President Donald Trump's controversial responses to these developments.

While Republicans have historically been more likely to say they're extremely proud to be American, Gallup found that even this group had lost a sense of national pride. The latest poll found a 9 percentage-point decrease.

The poll also showed that the share of white American respondents who expressed extreme pride in the nation had fallen below 50% for the first time (down to 49%), alongside a massive drop in the percentage of nonwhites who said the same: from 36% in 2019 to 24% in 2020.

Based on the poll's findings, only one age group (65 and older) had a majority of respondents who said they were extremely proud to be American, which was not the case even a year ago.