Subjective well-being in European Union countries

Abstract

The aim of this study is to estimate and compare subjective well-being in the EU member states. Moreover, the study investigates the objective factors influencing the level of SWB. The study also contains a comparative analysis of national profiles of subjective well-being in the EU member states. In addition, the EU member states were classified taking into account the degree of similarity between the structure of subjective well-being (similarity of relationships between the indicators of SWB components). The theoretical part includes a novel approach to measuring subjective well-being, which is based on recent recommendations of Eurostat and A. Sen’s capabilities approach. Under this approach, heterogeneous ways of maximizing SWB are taken into account, resulting from individuals’ capabilities and preferences and different living conditions, which depend on the stage of economic development and social customs in the country concerned. Moreover, this approach makes it possible to empirically verify hypotheses about potential factors influencing the dimensions of SWB. A multiple indicators and multiple causes (MIMIC) model was used to operationalise the capabilities approach. Based on the results of the MIMIC model, subjective well-being index (SWBI) and subjective well-being component indices (SWBCI) were proposed. The recommended method of constructing SWB indicators yields results that are comparable between countries and SWB components. A comparative analysis of national profiles by subjective well-being was carried out using one of the methods of factor analysis, namely correspondence analysis. The classification of the EU member states in terms of the similarity between their structures of subjective well-being (similarity of relationships between the indicators of SWB components) was conducted using agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis. Various tools were proposed to analyse the relationship between subjective well-being and income and between subjective well-being and age. In the empirical part, we used the proposed methodology to estimate SWB indicators in the EU member states in 2018. Moreover, we examined which factors determined subjective well-being in these countries. Next, we conducted a comparative analysis of national profiles in terms of subjective well-being and the clustering of EU-27 countries according to the similarity of their structures of subjective well-being. Finally, interrelationships between subjective well-being and its determinants were analysed. The empirical analyses was based on data from the European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for 2018.