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The Satisfaction with Life Index was created in 2007 by Adrian G. White, an analytic social psychologist at the
Happiness is not enough
" Templeton Lecture Inst. of Economic Affairs. Accessed 23 July 2011. This Index, however, is not solely based on directly asking "how people feel", but also on its social and economic development. The
The Satisfaction with Life Index was created in 2007 by Adrian G. White, an analytic social psychologist at the University of Leicester
The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...
, using data from a metastudy
Meta-analysis is a method of synthesis of quantitative data from multiple independent studies addressing a common research question. An important part of this method involves computing a combined effect size across all of the studies. As such, th ...
. It is an attempt to show life satisfaction
Life satisfaction is an evaluation of a person's quality of life. It is assessed in terms of mood, relationship satisfaction, achieved goals, self-concepts, and the self-perceived ability to cope with life. Life satisfaction involves a favorabl ...
in different nations.
In this calculation, subjective well-being correlates most strongly with health (.7), wealth (.6), and access to basic education (.6).
This is an example of directly measuring happiness
Happiness is a complex and multifaceted emotion that encompasses a range of positive feelings, from contentment to intense joy. It is often associated with positive life experiences, such as achieving goals, spending time with loved ones, ...
—asking people how happy they are—as an alternative to traditional measures of policy success such as GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...
or GNP
The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total amount of factor incomes earned by the residents of a country. It is equal to gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes received from n ...
. Some studies suggest that happiness can be measured effectively.Brittan, Samuel (22 November 2001)Happiness is not enough
" Templeton Lecture Inst. of Economic Affairs. Accessed 23 July 2011. This Index, however, is not solely based on directly asking "how people feel", but also on its social and economic development. The
Happy Planet Index
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an Index (economics), index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006. Each country's HPI value is a function of its average subjective life satisfacti ...
was used along with data from UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
on access to schooling, from the WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...
on life expectancy, and from the CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
on GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...
per capita to perform a new analysis to come to a unique and novel set of results. Specifically, the extent of correlation between measures of poverty, health and education, and the variable of happiness.
Satisfaction Index
The subjective well-being index represents the overall satisfaction level as one number. Analysed data to create the index comes fromUNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
, the CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
, the New Economics Foundation
The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is a Great Britain, British think-tank that promotes "social, economic and environmental justice".
NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) with the aim of working for a "new m ...
, the WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...
, the Veenhoven Database, the Latinbarometer, the Afrobarometer
The Afrobarometer is a pan-African, independent, non-partisan research network that measures public attitudes on economic, political, and social matters in Africa. Its secretariat headquarters are in Accra, Ghana, registered as a limited company ...
, and the UNHDR. These sources are analyzed to create a global projection of subjective well-being: the first world map of happiness.
Whilst collecting data on subjective well-being is not an exact science, the measures used are very reliable in predicting health and welfare outcomes.
International rankings 2007-2017
See also
*Social Progress Index
The Social Progress Index (SPI) measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens. Fifty-four indicators in the areas of basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity to prog ...
* Happy Planet Index
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an Index (economics), index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006. Each country's HPI value is a function of its average subjective life satisfacti ...
* Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, Education Index, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income i ...
** List of countries by Human Development Index
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) compiles the Human Development Index (HDI) of 193 nations in the annual Human Development Report. The index considers the health, education, income and living conditions in a given country to pro ...
* Quality of life
Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...
* Gross National Happiness
Gross National Happiness, (GNH; ) sometimes called Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH), is a philosophy that guides the government of Bhutan. It includes an index used to measure a population's collective happiness and well-being. The Gross National Ha ...
References
{{Quality of life country lists Happiness indices