Happy life expectancy in China

Abstract

Utilizing multiple-wave data from Chinese General Social Survey and the life table method, this study assesses the happy life expectancy of Chinese population aged 18 and older over 2005–2015. We also use the decomposition method to further isolate the happiness effect and mortality effect on temporal changes and gender differences. The results suggest that, Chinese adults, in general, live a great proportion of their lives happily, and the happy life expectancy increases pronouncedly over time in both absolute and relative terms. A rapidly rising level of happiness provides the major contribution to the temporal increase in happy life expectancy. Women exceed men in the length of happy life expectancy, and the gender difference enlarges over time. This gender gap in happy life expectancy mainly reflects a mortality effect. The results also indicate that with the increase of age, there is an increasing proportion of happy life years lived among the Chinese elderly, which is in sharp contrast with the decreasing proportion of healthy life years lived by this population, as suggested by previous studies on health life expectancy. We conclude that a combination of healthy life expectancy and happy life expectancy can provide a fuller and more comprehensive reflection on people’s overall quality of life.