Evolving Solutions: Human Development/Data Science
I chose to look at the topic, “Happiness and Life Satisfaction” under Living Conditions, Community and Wellbeing. This topic interests me because I’m curious about how people in different societies that may be affected by living in poverty, wealth, inequality, or freedom are satisfied with their lives. I always wondered if the previous generations were more content with their lives than the one we live in today. The generation I grew up in, Gen Z, has been surrounded by social media and access to news all around the world at all times of the day and I sometimes ask myself if this has affected my generations happiness and if those in the past were happier and more satisfied in life because they didn’t have access to this information or feel pressured to use it.
In this article, one study graphs conditional correlation between log income and life satisfaction and with evidence, coming to the conclusion that “income and life satisfaction tend to go together.” I found it fascinating that in this graph, Indonesia was the highest country to increase its life satisfaction when increasing their log income as well.
Another study presented by this article is a survey which collects data from over 160 countries and in over 140 languages, asking the question, “ Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. 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. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?” This experiment was also known as the “Cantril Ladder”. This data was plotted on a map and according to statistics in 2016, the Nordic countries ranked the highest on the ladder with Finland in the lead, all averaging above 7. In the same year, the Central African Republic was ranked one of the lowest countries on the map, followed by South Sudan, Tanzania, Rwanda and Haiti, all averaging with scores below 3.5. Although wealth and happiness do not depend on each other and are not one and the same, in this study, it’s proven that “richer and healthier countries tend to have higher acreage happiness scores.” As of 2019, Afghanistan was ranked the lowest country with life satisfaction of 2.38 on the ladder and Finland is still in the lead with 7.89 on the ladder.
The second survey conducted by this article collects data from almost 100 countries as they are asked the question, “Taking all things together, would you say you are (i) Very happy, (ii) Rather happy, (iii) Not very happy or (iv) Not at all happy?” Over the years, the trend has increased throughout the countries. One country, in particular, Zimbabwe, had people report ‘very happy’ or ‘rather happy’ went from 56.4% in 2004 to 82.1% in 2014.
Personally, I believe that countries in the world today are slowly becoming happier due to gross domestic product per capita, social support, life expectancy, and as Amartya Sen believes, freedom to make life choices in “both the primary objective of development and the principal means of development.”