Screen time and subjective well-being: Insights from a few countries worldwide

As digital technologies become central to everyday life, screen time is increasingly shaping how people experience well-being. This brief explores these dynamics using recent cross-country poll data for 14 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States), collected in early 2025 in collaboration with Cisco as part of the OECD Digital Well-being Hub. Using binary logistic regression models, it finds that individuals spending more than two hours daily on screens for personal use are more likely to report poorer subjective well-being . Yet, screen time alone does not tell the whole story. Lifestyle conditions like sleep deprivation, low physical activity and financial hardship prove to be even stronger predictors of low subjective well-being. Vulnerabilities deepen when prolonged screen use is coupled with factors like loneliness or unemployment. These findings underscore the importance of a balanced use of digital technologies for healthier lives.