Abstract
This paper studies the relationship of factors such as ageing, gender and environmental problems included in the quality of life (QoL) with the subjective well-being represented by the life satisfaction (LS) indicator of the citizens of 33 European countries. To do so, it uses the LS of a country’s citizens as the dependent variable; ageing, gender and environmental variables as independent variables; and other factors included in the QoL indicators and macroeconomic factors as control variables. Analysis uses data from the World Values Survey (WVS) and the European Values Study (EVS) for LS, from Eurostat for QoL indicators and World Bank for macroeconomic indicators. The values of LS have been treated based on the individual data from WVS and EVS in percentages according to their levels by country, and we present four robust models (two logit model and two OLS model). The results show that arrears of people aged 65 and over are a relation of positive significative in models with low levels of LS. The opposite is true for the income of people aged 65 and over. On the other hand, pollution, grime or other environmental problems and inequality show an inverse relationship with life satisfaction in models with high levels of satisfaction and a positive relationship in models with low levels of satisfaction. Nonetheless, the study has also shown contradictions in the gender gap and poverty indicators that should be studied further.
Highlights
Every day, it is more usual to find citizens’ well-being among the main objectives of the governments of developed countries and many international organizations
H3: Increasing the percentage of the population aged 65 and over who perceive their health as “very good” raises the probability that a country will have more than 35% of its population at satisfaction levels 9 and 10
We can point out that as the income of people aged 65 and over increases, the percentage of people with life satisfaction levels equal to or higher than 8 increases, and raises the probability that a country will have more than 35% of its population at satisfaction levels 9 and 10
Summary
It is more usual to find citizens’ well-being among the main objectives of the governments of developed countries and many international organizations. There is a belief that objective well-being (such as wealth) should be part of the overall indicator of well-being, and that GDP by itself is not adequate to describe the well-being of a country. The individual well-being of the citizens of a country “is highly subjective and person-specific, and policies should focus on making well-being possible by providing the freedoms and capabilities that allow each person to achieve what will contribute to his or her own well-being” [2] The same thing happens with life satisfaction and happiness. The individual subjectivity of these variables makes it necessary to use polls for this study [3]. Among the most important surveys that include data on life satisfaction and happiness are the World Values Survey (WVS) and the European Values Study (EVS)
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