The concept of quality of life and its application using the World Value Survey Wave 7: Slovak experience

Abstract

The paper is focused on the spatial differentiation of the quality of life at a district level, drawing data from the World Value Survey Round 7 (2017–2022). Spatial quality of life research in the traditional sense is based on the premise that quality of life is experienced by the individual in a physical geographical space, and therefore the research focuses on the objective, spatial dimension of quality of life, measured using the objective indicators, usually from statistical sources. The novelty of the paper lies in the premise that a spatial investigation of the subjective dimension of quality of life is also possible, focusing on the question of where people are satisfied with their lives. The indicator of this dimension is a self-related evaluation, obtained using the face-to-face method or the internet. In the case of the World Value Survey 7, data collection was done using the Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) technique. The aim of the paper is to conceptualize the subjective dimension of quality of life, apply the concept using data from WVS 7 and to find out which of the selected variables—also contained in WVS 7—are predictors of quality of life.