Life Satisfaction

Background

Measuring feelings can be very subjective, but is nonetheless a useful complement to more objective data when comparing quality of life across countries. Subjective data can provide a personal evaluation of an individual's health, education, income, personal fulfilment and social conditions. Surveys, in particular, are used to measure life satisfaction and happiness.

Life satisfaction

Life satisfaction measures how people evaluate their life as a whole rather than their current feelings. When asked to rate their general satisfaction with life on a scale from 0 to 10, people on average across the OECD gave it a 6.7. Life satisfaction is not evenly shared across the OECD however. Some countries – Colombia, Greece, Korea, Portugal and Turkey – have a relatively low level of overall life satisfaction, with average scores below 6. At the other end of the scale, scores reach 7.5 or above in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands and Switzerland

Life Satisfaction in Detail by Country