Saying Hello to a Neighbor Improves Your Health
Being an engaged neighbor often involves more than just a wave and saying hello to your neighbors. Learning and using the names of your neighbors is the next step.’ Now a Gallup study shows that American adults who regularly say hello to more than one person in their neighborhood have better well-being than those who say hello to fewer neighbors or none. Americans’ well-being score increases steadily by the number of neighbors greeted, from 51.5 among those saying hello to zero neighbors to 64.1 for those greeting six neighbors. No meaningful increase in well-being is seen for additional neighbors greeted beyond six. These results were collected from the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index. The index is calculated on a scale of zero to 100, where zero represents the lowest possible well-being and 100 represents the highest possible well-being. The well-being metrics include: Career wellbeing: You like what you do every day. Social wellbeing: You have meaningful frie