![]() The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. The main life evaluation question asked in the poll is: “Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The underlying source of the happiness scores in the World Happiness Report is the Gallup World Poll-a set of nationally representative surveys undertaken in more than 160 countries in over 140 languages. The map here shows, country by country, the ‘happiness scores’ published this report. The World Happiness Report is a well-known source of cross-country data and research on self-reported life satisfaction. The evidence suggests that people tend to adapt to changes. Important life events such as marriage or divorce do affect our happiness, but have surprisingly little long-term impact.So the evidence suggests that income and life satisfaction tend to go together (which still doesn’t mean they are one and the same). ![]() Richer people tend to say they are happier than poorer people richer countries tend to have higher average happiness levels and across time, most countries that have experienced sustained economic growth have seen increasing happiness levels.It only takes a glimpse at the data to see that people are distributed along a wide spectrum of happiness levels. Life satisfaction and happiness vary widely both within and among countries.Surveys asking people about life satisfaction and happiness do measure subjective well-being with reasonable accuracy.Here is a preview of what the data reveals. Our focus here will be on survey-based measures of self-reported happiness and life satisfaction. In this entry, we discuss the data and empirical evidence that might answer these questions. 1 But how can happiness be measured? Are there reliable comparisons of happiness across time and space that can give us clues regarding what makes people declare themselves ‘happy’? ![]() Social scientists often recommend that measures of subjective well-being should augment the usual measures of economic prosperity, such as GDP per capita. Indeed, today, life satisfaction and happiness are central research areas in the social sciences, including in ‘mainstream’ economics. These are difficult questions to answer but they are questions that undoubtedly matter for each of us personally. How happy are people today? Were people happier in the past? How satisfied with their lives are people in different societies? And how do our living conditions affect all of this?
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