Subjective well-being and selected economic, demographic, and job factors in OECD countries

This study compared 10 economic, demographic, and job factors between happier and less happy OECD countries based upon scores of subjective well-being (SWB), a concept commonly meaning happiness or life satisfaction. In 2009, the scores of residents in the happier OE CD countries were significantly higher on three factors-health, income, and the self-reported physical difficulty of their jobs- than the scores of residents in the le s happy OECD countries. Although interest continues for improving SWB scores, anal yzing correlations between SWB and selected factors yields onl y correlates of happiness. The authors discusses the results in the light of other studies and identifies initiatives that may lead to the development of new measures of subjective-well being. -- income ; gender ; health ; longevity ; job characteristics