Demographic Variation in Inner Peace Across 22 Countries: A Cross-National Analysis of the Global Flourishing Study

Although peace is invariably regarded as a universal good, most research focuses on ‘outer’ forms (e.g., societal relations), with little attention to ‘inner’ peace (IP, i.e., tranquil states of mind). This may reflect the Western-centrism of academia, with low arousal positive states like IP being relatively undervalued in the West. But alongside broader efforts to redress such Western-centricity, an emergent literature is now exploring this concept. This report adds to this by presenting the most ambitious longitudinal study to date of IP, namely as an item – “In general, how often do you feel you are at peace with your thoughts and feelings?” – in the Global Flourishing Study, a five-year (minimum) panel study of the predictors of flourishing, involving (in this first year) 202,898 participants from 22 countries. This paper looks at demographic variation vis-à-vis IP, with our primary analyses consisting of meta-analyses across countries for each demographic group, focusing on three research questions. (1) What are the distributions and descriptive statistics of key demographic factors? (2) How does IP order across countries, with considerable variation observed, with the percentage always or often at peace ranging from 89% (95% CI = 87,90) in Hong Kong to just 49% (0.46,0.52) in Turkey. (3) How does IP vary across demographic categories, with the greatest variation among those always/often at peace observed in relation to age (68% [63,73] of 18–24 year olds versus 86% [73,94] of the 80+), followed by employment status (63% [0.57,0.68] of unemployed job-seekers versus 78% [65,75] of retirees), then religious attendance (68% [62,73] for non-attendees versus 80% [73,85] for more than once weekly). The results shed new light on the personal and contextual factors that shape this valued yet under-studied outcome, and provide a helpful foundation for further enquiry.