by Evie Stone

New data from the Pew Center indicates that Republicans are happier than Democrats.

According to a survey conducted earlier this month, 37% of Republicans self-identify as "very happy" while only 25% of Democrats do. GOPers have outpaced Dems on the happiness scale since Pew started asking in 1972, but this is one of the largest gaps in the survey's history.

Some possible explanations for the Republican happiness advantage:

In the latest Pew survey, some 35% of those with family incomes above $100,000 a year report being very happy, compared with just 27% of those with annual incomes of less than $50,000. (A June Pew survey had found an even wider happiness gap by income — 46% of the $100,000-plus income group reported being very happy in that survey, compared with 30% of the under-$50,000 group — perhaps suggesting that the recent stock market miseries have disproportionately intruded on the happiness of those in higher income brackets).

Pew surveys also find that Republicans have more money than Democrats — on average, about $18,000 more a year in annual family income, according to a February survey. And when it comes to household wealth, the Republican advantage over Democrats is even greater.

Next up on the demographic check list is marriage. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be married, and married adults are more likely than unmarried adults to report that they are very happy — 34% vs. 24%.

But let's stop right here, because these correlations raise as many questions as they answer. Is it that happy people get married, or that married people get happy? Does money lead to happiness, or happiness to money? Or might some unrelated factor be creating correlations which don't actually have any causal connection?

Check Pew's website for the regressive analysis...