Subjective wellbeing and its economic, social, and institutional determinants. Based on the World Happiness Report 2023 framework: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom of choice, generosity, and perceptions of corruption as the six key predictors of national life satisfaction.
Domain: Subjective Wellbeing
Study of life satisfaction, happiness, and psychological wellbeing at the population level. Examines structural, social, economic, and institutional correlates of self-reported life evaluations.
Period: 2005-present
Population: Sovereign states (country-year Gallup World Poll observations)
Level: macro
Research Questions:- What economic and social factors predict national life satisfaction?
- Does income growth translate to happiness gains at the national level?
- How do social support and institutional trust affect wellbeing?
- What role does freedom and absence of corruption play in life satisfaction?
Constructs
life_satisfaction
Life Satisfaction
Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale: respondents rate their life on a ladder from 0 (worst possible life) to 10 (best possible life). National average. Primary outcome in WHR analyses.
subjective wellbeingSWBhappiness scoreCantril ladderlife evaluationwellbeing index
social_support
Social Support
Share of respondents answering 'yes' to 'If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on?' Gallup World Poll. Ranges 0-1.
social connectionssocial capital (informal)having someone to count onsocial tiessocial connectedness
healthy_life_expectancy
Healthy Life Expectancy
Healthy life expectancy at birth (years), from WHO/GHO data. Captures both longevity and health-adjusted quality of life.
HLEHALEhealth-adjusted life expectancy
freedom_of_choice
Freedom of Choice
Share of respondents answering 'yes' to 'Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?' Ranges 0-1.
autonomylife freedom
generosity
Generosity
Residual of regressing national average response to 'Have you donated money to a charity in the past month?' on log GDP per capita. Captures pro-social behavior beyond what income explains.
perceptions_of_corruption
Perceptions of Corruption
Average of two Gallup binary questions: is corruption widespread throughout government/business in this country? Ranges 0-1 (higher = more corruption perceived).
corruption indexinstitutional trust (inverse)
Findings
GDP per capita (log) positively predicts life satisfaction. A one log unit increase is associated with approximately +0.35 points on the Cantril ladder. Log GDP per capita independently explains roughly 25% of cross-national variance in ladder scores.
Direction: positive
Confidence: strong
Effect: strong ā explains ~25% of cross-national variance in ladder scores independently
Method: OLS regression, country-year panel with year fixed effects, Nā1,700 country-years across 2005-2022, Gallup World Poll
Social support is a strong positive predictor of life satisfaction. A one-unit increase in the social support proportion is associated with approximately +1.4 points on the Cantril ladder.
Direction: positive
Confidence: strong
Effect: strong
Method: OLS regression, country-year panel with year fixed effects, Nā1,700 country-years across 2005-2022, Gallup World Poll
Healthy life expectancy positively predicts life satisfaction. Each additional year of healthy life expectancy at birth is associated with approximately +0.03 points on the Cantril ladder.
Direction: positive
Confidence: strong
Effect: moderate
Method: OLS regression, country-year panel with year fixed effects, Nā1,700 country-years across 2005-2022, Gallup World Poll
Freedom of choice positively predicts life satisfaction. A one-unit increase in the freedom proportion is associated with approximately +1.2 points on the Cantril ladder.
Direction: positive
Confidence: strong
Effect: moderate to strong
Method: OLS regression, country-year panel with year fixed effects, Nā1,700 country-years across 2005-2022, Gallup World Poll
Perceptions of corruption negatively predict life satisfaction. A one-unit increase in corruption perceptions is associated with approximately -0.7 points on the Cantril ladder.
Direction: negative
Confidence: strong
Effect: moderate
Method: OLS regression, country-year panel with year fixed effects, Nā1,700 country-years across 2005-2022, Gallup World Poll
Generosity is positively but weakly associated with life satisfaction. A one-unit increase in the generosity residual is associated with approximately +0.5 points on the Cantril ladder, though this relationship is less robust than the other five WHR predictors.
Direction: positive
Confidence: moderate
Effect: weak to moderate
Method: OLS regression, country-year panel with year fixed effects, Nā1,700 country-years across 2005-2022, Gallup World Poll
The income-happiness relationship shows diminishing returns at high income levels. The slope between log GDP per capita and life satisfaction is steeper for lower-income countries, suggesting that additional income yields larger wellbeing gains in poorer nations.
Direction: positive
Confidence: moderate
Effect: nonlinear ā stronger for poor countries
Method: OLS regression, country-year panel with year fixed effects, Nā1,700 country-years across 2005-2022, Gallup World Poll
Income, insurance, and background account for ~30% of the education-health gradient; knowledge and cognitive ability ~30%; social networks ~10%.
Direction: positive
Confidence: strong
Method: OLS regression
Playbooks
Quick Start ā Run This First1ā2 minutes
2 steps
Two-step minimal analysis to verify data acquisition and get an immediate sense of the core happiness-income-social relationships. Runs in under 2 minutes. No prior setup required. Run this before standard_analysis to confirm the data pipeline is working correctly.
correlation_matrix
Standard Happiness-Economics Analysis3ā8 minutes depending on API latency
4 steps
Full four-step analysis of cross-national happiness determinants. Runs data acquisition, a full correlation matrix, a multivariate OLS regression of all six WHR predictors, and a bivariate deep dive on the freedom-happiness relationship. Produces publication-ready tables and plots.
correlation_matrixols_regression
Details
Domain: Subjective Wellbeing
Study of life satisfaction, happiness, and psychological wellbeing at the population level. Examines structural, social, economic, and institutional correlates of self-reported life evaluations.
Temporal scope: 2005-present | Population: Sovereign states (country-year Gallup World Poll observations)
Key Findings
- GDP per capita (log) positively predicts life satisfaction. A one log unit increase is associated with approximately +0.35 points on the Cantril ladder. Log GDP per capita independently explains roughly 25% of cross-national variance in ladder scores. (positive, strong)
- Social support is a strong positive predictor of life satisfaction. A one-unit increase in the social support proportion is associated with approximately +1.4 points on the Cantril ladder. (positive, strong)
- Healthy life expectancy positively predicts life satisfaction. Each additional year of healthy life expectancy at birth is associated with approximately +0.03 points on the Cantril ladder. (positive, strong)
- Freedom of choice positively predicts life satisfaction. A one-unit increase in the freedom proportion is associated with approximately +1.2 points on the Cantril ladder. (positive, strong)
- Perceptions of corruption negatively predict life satisfaction. A one-unit increase in corruption perceptions is associated with approximately -0.7 points on the Cantril ladder. (negative, strong)
- Generosity is positively but weakly associated with life satisfaction. A one-unit increase in the generosity residual is associated with approximately +0.5 points on the Cantril ladder, though this relationship is less robust than the other five WHR predictors. (positive, moderate)
- The income-happiness relationship shows diminishing returns at high income levels. The slope between log GDP per capita and life satisfaction is steeper for lower-income countries, suggesting that additional income yields larger wellbeing gains in poorer nations. (positive, moderate)
- Income, insurance, and background account for ~30% of the education-health gradient; knowledge and cognitive ability ~30%; social networks ~10%. (positive, strong)