The data collected by EVS provides an interesting insight into differences between different European countries in terms of happiness among the European population, an indicator that could reflect aspects such as well-being, quality of life or social satisfaction: With a European average of 80.60, there are significant regional differences. The Nordic countries, such as Norway (94.1), Iceland (93.81) and Sweden (92.35), rank at the top of the ranking, highlighting a high level of happiness. On the other hand, countries like Bulgaria (50.2), Ukraine (60.56) and Romania (69.31) are below the EU average.
Chart: Percentage of people that say hey are very or quite happy
Source: Atlas of European Values
Data collected by EVS show that life satisfaction varies considerably across Europe, reflecting differences in economic development, social policies and cultural factors. With a European average of around 69.4, there are significant differences between the regions. The Nordic countries also hold the highest position in terms of life satisfaction, with particularly high values in Iceland (78.57), Norway (77.99), Finland (76.79) and Denmark (76.75), to which Switzerland (78.11) is added. These countries show well above average levels of life satisfaction, reflecting a generally high quality of life and social welfare. In contrast, several countries in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus have lower levels of life satisfaction: Bulgaria (57.86), Ukraine (56.52), Armenia (59.97) and Azerbaijan (59.66) have the lowest scores, By pointing out challenges linked to less favourable socio-economic conditions, reduced access to quality services or political instability that may adversely affect perceived well-being.
Chart: Degree of satisfaction with one’s life
Source: Atlas of European Values
Well-being or happiness is the individual judgment of the overall quality of one’s life, the result of weighing one’s mental and health state against one’s aspirations and expectations. Happiness has been said to be a too complex phenomenon to understand or a too personal one. We are simply born happy or unhappy: the Irish are dead optimistic by nature and the Russians just chronically murky. Others have argued that happiness largely depends on comparison with reference groups. Well-being has no absolute value. We are ‘insatiable’ when it comes to happiness, but we also ‘adjust’ to unhappiness. What makes people happy differs from time to time, and from place to place. Nevertheless, the European Values Study shows that happiness is higher in nations characterized by the rule of law, freedom, civil society, cultural diversity and modernity (schooling, technology, urbanization). Together with material comfort, these factors explain almost all differences in happiness across nations.
The results of the European Values Study also confirms a well-known notion in psychology that people are happier when they feel they have some control over the way their life turns out. In psychology, this feeling of being in control is known as the locus of control and is considered an important aspect of one’s personality. Individuals with an external locus of control believe that life is guided by faith, luck or other external circumstances. Their own behavior doesn’t matter very much; rewards in life are considered outside of their control. On the contrary, individuals with a strong internal locus of control believe that life is steered by their own personal decisions and efforts: life is what you make it.
Chart: Connection between the percentage of happiness and percentage of perceived control of life in European Countries
Source: Atlas of European Values
Chart: Feeling that people have completely free choice and control over their lives rather than that they have no influence over what happens to them
Source: Atlas of European Values
To study in depth and become acquainted with our studies on the European Value of this topic, please refer to our publications based on the EVS data and listed in the EVS Bibliography (the EVS Bibliography is annually updated) of which you can find below an excerpt of the latest:
Andreenkova, A. V. (2020): “Межстрановые различия в уровне счастья в постсоветских странах – сравнительный анализ (Cross-National Differences in Level of Happiness in the Post-Soviet Countries: A Comparative Analysis)”. In: Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes (1): 316-339.
Araki, Satoshi (2023): “Life satisfaction, skills diffusion, and the Japan Paradox: Toward multidisciplinary research on the skills trap”. In: International Journal of Comparative Sociology 64 (3): 278–299.
Arslan, Hilal (2023): “Happiness Inequality in Post-Socialist Countries during Neoliberal Transition”. In: Comparative Sociology 22 (1): 30-73.
Bjørnskov, Christian (2021): “Happiness in the Nordic World”. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
Borooah, Vani Kant (2023): “Economics, Religion and Happiness: God, Mammon and the Search for Spiritual and Financial Wealth”. London: Routledge.
Bruni, Luigino; Rosa, Dalila De and Ferri, Giovanni (2019): “Cooperatives and happiness. Cross-country evidence on the role of relational capital”. In: Applied Economics 51 (30): 3325-3343.
Ciziceno, Marco (2021): “The Influence of Religion on Life Satisfaction in Italy”. In: Italian Sociological Review 11 (2): 467- 484.
Domínguez, Rafael and López-Noval, Borja (2021): “Religiosity and Life Satisfaction Across Countries: New Insights from the Self-Determination Theory”. In: Journal of Happiness Studies 22 (3): 1165–1188. First published online: May 22, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00268-y
Easterlin, Richard A. and O’Connor, Kelsey J. (2022): “Explaining happiness trends in Europe”. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (37): 1-4.
Esaiasson, Peter; Dahlberg, Stefan and Kokkonen, Andej (2020): “In pursuit of happiness: Life satisfaction drives political support”. In: European Journal of Political Research 59 (1): 25-44.
Graafland, Johan (2023): “On Rule of Law, Civic Virtues, Trust, and Happiness”. In: Applied Research in Quality of Life 18: 799–1824.
Graafland, Johan (2023): “Economic freedom and life satisfaction: A moderated mediation model with individual autonomy and national culture”. In: European Journal of Political Economy 79: 1-15.
Lous, Bjorn and Graafland, Johan (2022): “Who Becomes Unhappy when Income Inequality Increases?”. In: Applied Research in Quality of Life 17 (1): 299-316
Mavruk, Can (2022): “Socio-Demographics and Satisfaction with Life”. In: Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Educational and Social Sciences, edited by Mustafa Kahyaoğlu, 137-156. Ankara: iksad publishing house.
Näsman, Marina and Nyqvist, Fredrica (2022): “Life satisfaction and social capital in different age groups in Finland: Data from the European Values Study”. In: Finnish Journal of Social Research 15: 45-62.
Ngamaba, Kayonda Hubert; Kandala, Ngianga-Bakwin; Ilenda, Francois Batuyekula and Mupolo, Perseverante Kawata (2022): “Are men’s happiness and life satisfaction linked to why men die earlier than women? A panel study from 1981 to 2020 in 102 countries”. In: Journal of Happiness and Health 3 (1): 14-33.
Ortega-Gil, Manuela; Cortés-Sierra, Georgina and ElHichou-Ahmed, Chaima (2021): “The Effect of Environmental Degradation, Climate Change, and the European Green Deal Tools on Life Satisfaction”. In: Energies 14 (18): 1-14.
Pimpawatin, Pachara and Witvorapong, Nopphol (2022): “Parenthood and Life Satisfaction: The Role of Welfare Regimes”. In: Journal of Population and Social Studies 30: 652-678.
Plepytė-Davidavičienė, Giedrė (2020): “Kaip matuojama laimė? (How is Happiness Measured?)”. In: Filosofija Sociologija 31 (2): 107-116. https://doi.org/10.6001/fil-soc.v31i2.4229.
Raudenská, Petra (2023): “Single-item measures of happiness and life satisfaction: the issue of cross-country invariance of popular general well-being measures”. In: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 10 (1): 1-18.
Sarracino, Francesco and O’Connor, Kelsey J. (2021): “Economic growth and well-being beyond the Easterlin paradox”. In: A Modern Guide to the Economics of Happiness, edited by Luigino Bruni, Alessandra Smerilli and Dalila De Rosa, 162–188. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Sechel, Cristina (2019): “Happier than them, but more of them are happy: Aggregating subjective well-being”. Sheffield Economic Research Paper Series (SERPS). (2019008). Sheffield: Unversity of Sheffield, Department of Economics. https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.840769!/file/paper_2019008.pdf .
Sechel, Cristina (2021): “The share of satisfied individuals: A headcount measure of aggregate subjective well-being”. In: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 186: 373-394.
Schalembier, Benjamin (2019): “An Evaluation of Common Explanations for the Impact of Income Inequality on Life Satisfaction”. In: Journal of Happiness Studies: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Subjective Well-Being 20 (3): 777-794. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9970-6.
Skorska, Anna (2022): “Life Satisfaction and its Determinants – Convergence or Divergence in the European Union?”. Paper presented at the meeting of the Economic and Social Development 88 th International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development – “Roadmap to NetZero Economies and Businesses” Book of Proceedings, edited by Jelena Janjusevic, Paul Hopkinson and Irena Pandza Bajs, 145-154. Dubai.
Soboleva, Natalia (2022): “The determinants of the link between life satisfaction and job satisfaction across Europe”. In: International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 42 (11-12): 1180-1198.
Sudo, Naoki (2022): “The Effects of Postmaterialist Values on Average Life Satisfaction at the Country Level: What Generates Differences in Subjective Well-Being among European Countries?”. In: Socius 8: 1-15.
Tezanos, Sergio and López-Noval, Borja (2022): “How’s life? An international classification based on life satisfaction and its determinants”. In: International Journal of Happiness and Development 7 (1): 64-90.
Ugur, Zeynep B. (2020): “Does Having Children Bring Life Satisfaction in Europe?”. In: Journal of Happiness Studies: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Subjective Well-Being 21 (4): 1385-1406. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00135-5 .
Wang, Shun; Kim, Seonga; Ma, Mingming and Wu, Fengyu (2022): “Measuring Happiness amid the COVID-19 Pandemic”. In: Global Happiness and Well-being Policy Report 2022, 135-157. New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Zafar, Sameen and Ammara, Suman (2023): “Pursuit of happiness: Subjective well-being of immigrants and natives”. In: International Migration 61 (3): 314-335.
Žiliukaitė, Rūta (2023): “Laisvi ir laimingi? Laimės dinamika Lietuvoje kartų kaitos perspektyvoje (Free and Happy? Dynamics of Subjective Well-being in Lithuania in the Perspective of Generational Change)”. In: Filosofija. Sociologija 34 (4): 22-36.