Social
Life satisfaction
A person's cognitive evaluation of their life as a whole, the most widely used single measure of subjective wellbeing in surveys and policy.
Definition
Life satisfaction is an individual's overall evaluative judgement of their life, typically measured with a single survey question ("Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?", scored 0–10). It is the most commonly used evaluative measure of subjective wellbeing, alongside Cantril's self-anchoring ladder, which asks respondents to place their lives between the worst (0) and best (10) possible.
References
Question wording, comparison with Cantril's ladder, Global Flourishing Study
Evaluative-measure typology, ONS4, Gallup self-anchoring ladder
Overview
What it means
Subjective wellbeing has evaluative (life satisfaction, life evaluation), experiential (daily emotions) and eudaimonic (meaning) components; life satisfaction captures the first and is collected in major instruments such as the Gallup World Poll, OECD Better Life Index and national surveys.
Recent research using the 200,000-respondent Global Flourishing Study found life satisfaction correlates more broadly with health, happiness, meaning, relationships and financial security than the Cantril ladder, though country rankings in the World Happiness Report rely on the ladder.
How it is used
Governments use life satisfaction in wellbeing budgets and beyond-GDP frameworks; it tracks the social dimension of sustainability and the impacts of employment, environment and policy on quality of life.
Why it matters
It provides a direct, comparable measure of what development is ultimately for — how people experience their lives.
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