(Un)Happiness, where are you? Evaluating the relationship between urbanity, life satisfaction and economic development in a regional context

Abstract

Prior literature suggests that, among the so-called 'developed economies', residing in urban contexts is associated with lower life satisfaction. Using data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and Eurostat, we contribute to this literature by focusing on three different indicators of urbanity (subjective domicile, population density and living in a dominant urban region) in a multilevel modelling context in order to define where exactly the relatively lower life satisfaction can be found. Moreover, we account for the level of economic development at both regional and national levels. The results show that subjective domicile is strongly associated with life satisfaction, whereas regional gross domestic product (GDP) and other urbanity indicators are insignificant. Our results also highlight the relatively higher life satisfaction in rural surroundings in more developed countries. We conclude by noting that future contributions to the literature on urban-rural life satisfaction differences should utilize panel data, making it possible to address the spatial sorting versus contextual effects debate, and focus on investigating the higher level determinants at the country level that define the existence of urban-rural differences in life satisfaction within a country.

Urbanity, Neighbourhood Characteristics and Perceived Quality of Life (QoL): Analysis of Individual and Contextual Determinants for Perceived QoL in 3300 Postal Code Areas in Finland

“…As noted in the introduction this analysis focused on spatial differences in QoL within the happiest country in the world. Results confirm that robust urban-rural differences do exist in such context but we are left which a question on which country level attributes are related to emergence of such patterns in a country (see also Sørensen, 2021;Weckroth & Kemppainen, 2021). Thus, future analyses should try to detect and construct datasets that enable replicating this study in other national and most preferably international framings.…”

“…The previous literature suggests that the urban-rural SWB differences are localized in western context and in the most affluent countries (e.g. Berry & Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2009;Easterlin et al, 2011, Weckroth & Kemppainen, 2021. Hence, this analysis provides an intriguing insight to the within-country differences in a nation which has been named the happiest country in the world by the United Nations World Happiness Report (e.g.…”

“…In sum, despite the few recent contributions by Sørensen (2021) and Weckroth and Kemppainen (2021) scrutinizing different perceptions of urbanity, a majority of the existing "geography of happiness" literature has operated with single-dimensional measures of urban-rural divide. Thereby, the geographical focus has been, due to the nature of available datasets, either on rather broad urban-rural comparisons, or alternatively, on within-city scale with a focus on subjective evaluations of housing and neighbourhood satisfaction.…”

Psychological resilience of dairy farmers, life satisfaction, and the moderating role of age; Is there a link?

“…This is also triggered by several important factors such as social support, life experiences, and individual mindset. [34][35][36] . Furthermore, the second outcome in this research provides evidence of the significant moderating role of age between psychological resilience and life satisfaction.…”

Values, Health and Well-Being of Young Europeans Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET)

“…This indicates that in times of high unemployment, the role of the social norm to work is smaller [ 44 ]. Moreover, life satisfaction and subjective well-being tend to be lower in urban areas compared to rural areas in Europe [ 58 , 59 ], which may also be a sign of a higher social norm to work, but also, more expensive living and life in general. A pathway between values and well-being can also be explained through social norms in general; when individuals live according to society’s prevailing norms, their well-being is better because their values face no confrontation.…”