Lifestyle > Life satisfaction: Countries Compared

Author: James, Staff editor

The satisfaction people feel with their life tends to follow the wealth of the countries they live in - the developed world is at the top of the list while the developing world is at the bottom. This is explained by a survey of Life Satisfaction in Europe (<a href="http://www.eurofound.eu.int/publications/files/EF0437EN.pdf">PDF</a>), which found that people every where required pretty much the same things to be satisfied with their life. "The dominant concerns in all countries are found to be making a living (having an income), enjoying a satisfactory family life, and having good health, and these are the concerns that ordinarily determine peopleâ€™s satisfaction". The survey found that new entrants to the European Union (which tended to be less developed) also rated children as very important for a satisfactory life, while older members of the European Union were otherwise.
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There is no apparent connection between how satisfied people are and how happy they are. Only four of the countries are present in the top 10 of <a href="/graph/lif_hap_lev_ver_hap">Very Happy</a> countries, with <a href="/country/sz">Switzerland</a> falling from most satisfied country to tenth in the "Very Happy" list, while <a href="/country/ca">Canada</a> drops from eigth to fifteenth and <a href="/country/fi">Finland</a> plummets from ninth to twentyninth. However, satisfied people are less likely to say they are very unhappy, and six of the countries in the top 10 for Life Satisfaction are present in the top 10 of <a href="/graph/lif_hap_net">Net Happiness</a>, and <a href="/country/ic">Iceland</a>, <a href="/country/ei">Ireland</a> and the <a href="/country/nl">Netherlands</a> are distinguished by being near the top of both Life Satisfaction and Very Happy countries, and in the same order.
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DEFINITION: Most scores are based on responses to the following question: "All things considered, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life-as-a-whole now? 1 dissatisfied to10 satisfied" (item code O-SLW/c/sq/n/10/a). Scores of ten nations are based on responses to a somewhat different question: "Suppose the top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder the worst possible life. Where on this ladder do you feel you personally stand at the present time?" The response was rated on a ladder scale ranging from 0 to 10 (item code O-BW/c/sq/l/11/c). We transformed the scores using the information of nations in which both this item and the above question on life-satisfaction had been used in about the same years.

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INTERESTING
Q+A

Totals

#	COUNTRY	AMOUNT	DATE
=1	Malta	8	2004
=1	Denmark	8	2004
=1	Switzerland	8	2004
=4	Ireland	7.8	2004
=4	Iceland	7.8	2004
=6	Luxembourg	7.6	2004
=6	Canada	7.6	2004
=6	Netherlands	7.6	2004
=9	Finland	7.5	2004
=9	Sweden	7.5	2004
=11	United States	7.4	2004
=11	New Zealand	7.4	2004
=11	Norway	7.4	2004
=14	Belgium	7.3	2004
=14	Australia	7.3	2004
=16	El Salvador	7.2	2004
=16	United Kingdom	7.2	2004
18	Germany	7.1	2004
19	Brazil	7	2004
	Group of 7 countries (G7) average (profile)	7	2004
	High income OECD countries average (profile)	7	2004
=20	Italy	6.9	2004
=20	Singapore	6.9	2004
=22	Venezuela	6.8	2004
=22	Argentina	6.8	2004
=22	Dominican Republic	6.8	2004
	Eurozone average (profile)	6.77	2004
=25	Portugal	6.7	2004
=25	Uruguay	6.7	2004
=25	Israel	6.7	2004
=28	Taiwan	6.6	2004
=28	Spain	6.6	2004
=28	France	6.6	2004
=28	Indonesia	6.6	2004
	European Union average (profile)	6.49	2004
32	Philippines	6.4	2004
	NATO countries average (profile)	6.32	2004
33	Slovenia	6.3	2004
34	Japan	6.2	2004
35	Vietnam	6.1	2004
=36	Peru	6	2004
=36	Iran	6	2004
=38	Croatia	5.9	2004
=38	Poland	5.9	2004
40	South Korea	5.8	2004
41	Bangladesh	5.7	2004
=42	Morocco	5.6	2004
=42	South Africa	5.6	2004
=42	Turkey	5.6	2004
=42	Slovakia	5.6	2004
46	Hungary	5.5	2004
=47	Estonia	5.2	2004
=47	Uganda	5.2	2004
=47	Algeria	5.2	2004
=50	Jordan	5.1	2004
=50	Serbia and Montenegro	5.1	2004
=52	Republic of Macedonia	4.9	2004
=52	Lithuania	4.9	2004
=52	Azerbaijan	4.9	2004
=55	Latvia	4.8	2004
=55	Egypt	4.8	2004
57	Romania	4.7	2004
58	Albania	4.6	2004
59	Bulgaria	4.5	2004
60	Russia	4.4	2004
=61	Angola	4.3	2004
=61	Belarus	4.3	2004
=61	Pakistan	4.3	2004
64	Georgia	4.1	2004
65	Armenia	3.7	2004
66	Ukraine	3.6	2004
67	Moldova	3.5	2004
68	Zimbabwe	3.3	2004
69	Tanzania	3.2	2004

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