Happiness

Happiness level (average) in nations

Overall happiness Hedonic level of affect Contentment Mixed Items %unhappy

Overall happiness

Variable¹	Measurement	Era²	SPSS code	N	Source³
*happiness*	3-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how happy would you say you are these days? - very happy - fairly happy - not too happy	late 1940s	HappinessHL3_1940s	7	WDH table 111B
		1960s	happinessHL3_1960s	9
		1970s	HappinessHL3_1970s	18
		1980s	HappinessHL3_1980s	15
		1990s	HappinessHL3_1990s	13
	4-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how happy would you say you are these days? - very happy - happy - unhappy - very unhappy	1980s	HappinessHL4_1980s	25	WDH table 111C
		1990s	HappinessHL4_1990s	69
		early 2000s	HappinessHL4_2000s	51
	5-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how happy would you say you are these days? - very happy - happy - neither happy nor unhappy - unhappy - very unhappy	1970s	HappinessHL5_1970s	10	WDH table 111D
		1980s	HappinessHL5_1980s	16
		1990s	HappinessHL5_1990s	18
	3+4+5 step verbal scales transformed to range 0-10⁴
		1970s	HappinessHLt_1970s	23	WDH table 111B + WDH table 111C + WDH table 111D
		1980s	HappinessHLt_1980s	29
		1990s	HappinessHLt_1990s	74
*Life satisfaction*	3-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? - satisfied - so so - dissatisfied	early 1940s	HappinessLS3_1948	7	WDH table 121B
	4-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? - very satisfied - satisfied - dissatisfied - very dissatisfied	1970s	HappinessLS4_1970s	10	WDH table 121C
		1980s	HappinessLS4_1980s	14
		1990s	HappinessLS4_1990s	40
		early 2000s	HappinessLS4_2000s	56
	5-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? - very satisfied - satisfied - neither satisfied not dissatisfied - dissatisfied - very dissatisfied	1970s	HappinessLS5_1970s	10	WDH table 121D
		1980s	HappinessLS5_1980s	15
		1990s	HappinessLS5_1990s	10
		early 2000s	HappinessLS5_2000s	2
	3+4+5-step verbal scales transformed to range 0-10⁵
		1970s	HappinessLSst_1970s	17	WDH table 121B + WDH table 121C + WDH table 121D
		1980s	HappinessLSst_1980s	19
		1990s	HappinessLSst_1990s	48
	10-step numerical scale Typical item: Taking all together, how satisfied are you with your life-as-a-whole these days? 1 very dissatisfied . . 10 very satisfied transformed to range 0-10⁶	1970-1979	HappinessLS10_1970s	18	WDH table 122D
		1980-1989	HappinessLS10_1980s	22
		1990-1999	HappinessLS10_1990s	71
		2000-2009	HappinessLS10_2000s	87
	11-step numerical scale Typical item: Taking all together, how satisfied are you with your life-as-a-whole these days? 0 very dissatisfied . . 10 very satisfied	1970-1979	HappinessLS11_1970s	18	WDH table 122E
		1980-1989	HappinessLS11_1980s	12
		1990-1999	HappinessLS11_1990s	¹¹
		2000-2009	HappinessLS11_2000s	125
		2010-
	10+11 step numerical scales transformed to range 0-10	1970-1979	HappinessLS10.11_1970s	18	WDH table 122D + WDH table 122E
		1980-1989	HappinessLS10.11_1980s	25
		1990-1999	HappinessLS10.11_1990s	72
		2000-2009	HappinessLS10.11_2000s	152
		2010-
	Change over time	1970s-80s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1970s-1980s	14	Computed subtracting later from earlier LS10.11
		1970s-90s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1970s-1990s	18
		1970s-00s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1970s-2000s	18
		1980s-90s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1980s-1990s	22
		1980s-00s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1980s-2000s	21
		1990s-00s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1990s-2000s	70

Hedonic level of affect

*Affect balance* last weeks	Affect Balance Scale: 10 item scale Typical items are: -During the past few weeks have you felt..? - That things were going your way (yes/no) - Lonely and remore from people (yes/no)				WDH table 222
		1970s	HappinessABS_1970s	7
		1980s	HappinessaABS_1980s	24
		1990s	HappinessABS_1990s	39
*Affect balance* yesterday	Question: Would you like more days than yesterday? (yes/no)	2006	HappinessYesterdayAffect1_2006	130	WDH table 231
	QuestionDid you experience a lot of the day.. - enjoyment - sadness (yes/no)	2006	HappinessYesterdayaffect2_2006	130
	Average of Specific Affects: 16 item scale Typical items are: - Now thinks about yesterday: Would you like more such days? (yes/no) - Did you experience the following feeling a lot of the day yesterday? How about enjoyment? (yes/no)	2006	HappinessYesterdayAffect3_2006	130	WDH table
	Question: Would you like more days than yesterday? Yes or No? % yes	2006-2008	HappinessYesterdayOK_2006.08	129	WDH table 235
	14 questions on affects experienced yesterday % positive minus % negative affects	2006-2008	HappinessYesterdayABS_2006.08	129	WDH table 236

Contentment

Best-Worst possible life	11 step Cantril ladder Typical item: Here is a picture of a ladder, suppose that the top represents the best possible life and the bottom the worst possible life. Where on this ladder would you place your current life?? 0 worst possible . . 10 best possible	1960s	HappinessBW11_1960s	17	WDH table 31D
		1970s	HappinessBW11_1970s	12
		1980s	HappinessBW11_1980s	2
		1990s	HappinessBW11_1990	3
		early 2000s	HappinessBW11_2000s	44
		2006	HappinessBW11_2006	132
		2006-09	HappinessBW11Gallup_2006.09	139
	11 step scale combined with 10-step scale stretched to 0-10	2000-2008	HappinessBW10.11-2000.08	138	WDH table 31C + WDH table 31D
Life fits wants	Typical item: On the whole my life is close to how I would like it to be - strongly agree - agree - neither agree nor disagree - disagree - strongly disagree	2006	HappinessLifeFitsWants5_2007	22	WDH table 33D

Combined non-equivalent items

Life satisfaction + contentment	Responses on question on Lifesatisfaction (HappinessLS10.11) completed with estimates based on responses to question on Contentment (HappinessBW11), both on scale 0-10 Estimated life satisfaction = 1.156 x observed score on the Best-Worst item - 0.457. This formula is based on a regression analysis of 103 nations in which both questions had been used in the same year. The 95% confidence interval around these estimated values is about 1.3 points. which means that these estimates are not very precise.	1960-1969	HappinessLSBW_1960s	14	WDH table 122D + WDH table 122E + WDH table 31B + WDH table 31C
		1970-1979	HappinessLSBW_1970s	18
		1980-1989	HappinessLSBW_1980s	27
		1990-1999	HappinessLSBW_1990s	72
		2000-2009	HappinessLSBW_2000s	154
		2010-

% unhappy

Variable	Measurement	Era	SPSS code	N	Source
% dissatisfied with life	% below 3 on 10 step life satisfaction	1990-99	LS10_below3_1990s	61	Computed from World Value Surveys 1990, 1995, 1999
	% below 4 on 10 step life satisfaction	1990-99	LS10_below4_1990s	64
	% below 5 on 10 step life satisfaction	1990-99	LS10_below5_1990s	79
	% below 5 on 10 step life satisfaction	2005	LS10_below5_2005	53	Computed from World Values Surveys 2005

1. Only items that concern happiness in the sense of 'subjective appreciation of life-as-a-whole, as assessed in surveys by direct questions' and passed the validity test for inclusion in the World Database of Hapiness.

2. Mean scores per era per country. Mostly based on only one survey, sometimes 10 or more.

3. Data taken from World Database of Happiness (WDH), section 'Distributional Findings in nations'; selected to obtain sets that are comparable across a sufficient number of nations in an era.

4. Transformed to 0-10 by Thurstone transformation. Experts rated response options such as 'very happy' and 'unhappy' on a 0 to 10 point scale. Next average scores were computed on the basis of these weights. See Veenhoven 1993 pp 108-114. An advantage of this method is that responses on different questions can be compared. This yields a greater number of cases. Yet the transformation is discutable.

5. Transformed to 0-10. Thurstone transformation. Experts rated response options such as 'very satisfied' and 'dissatisfied' on a 0 to 10 point scale. Next average scores were computed on the basis of these weights. See Veenhoven 1993 pp 108-114. An advantage of this method is that responses on different questions can be compared. This yields a greater number of cases. Yet the transformation is discutable.

6. 10 step stretched to 11. Transformation procedure described in Veenhoven 1993 pp 115.

For an overview of survey items per nation, per era see caselist

Related variables:
Optimism; see topic Beliefs

Related topics:
Affect
Mental health
Appreciation of life
Happy years
Happiness inequality
Happiness in segments
Suicide

Related themes:
Happiness

States of Nations is an inventory of country characteristics. It is part of the World Database of Happiness

Keywords added: Cross-national, Life Satisfaction, Well-being