IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/3g2d8.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Urban Desirability Paradox: UK Urban-rural Differences in Well-being, Social, and Economic Satisfaction

Author

Listed:
  • Finnemann, Adam
  • Huth, Karoline
  • van der Maas, Han
  • Borsboom, Denny
  • Epskamp, Sacha

Abstract

As the majority of the global population resides in cities, it is imperative to understand urban well-being. While cities offer concentrated social and economic opportunities, the question arises whether these benefits translate to equitable levels of satisfaction in these domains. Utilizing a novel, robust, and objective measure of urbanicity on a sample of 156k UK residents, we find that urban living is associated with lower scores across seven dimensions of well-being, social satisfaction, and economic satisfaction. Additionally, these scores exhibit greater variability within urban areas, revealing increased inequality. Lastly, we identify optimal distances in the hinterlands of cities with the highest satisfaction and least variation. Our findings raise concern for the psychological well-being of urban residents and show the importance of non-linear methods in urban research.

Suggested Citation

  • Finnemann, Adam & Huth, Karoline & van der Maas, Han & Borsboom, Denny & Epskamp, Sacha, 2023. "The Urban Desirability Paradox: UK Urban-rural Differences in Well-being, Social, and Economic Satisfaction," OSF Preprints 3g2d8, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:3g2d8
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/3g2d8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/65787b5b74f36130142e43c8/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/3g2d8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicola Mucci & Veronica Traversini & Chiara Lorini & Simone De Sio & Raymond P. Galea & Guglielmo Bonaccorsi & Giulio Arcangeli, 2020. "Urban Noise and Psychological Distress: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Kiron Chatterjee & Samuel Chng & Ben Clark & Adrian Davis & Jonas De Vos & Dick Ettema & Susan Handy & Adam Martin & Louise Reardon, 2020. "Commuting and wellbeing: a critical overview of the literature with implications for policy and future research," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 5-34, January.
    3. Dahly, Darren L. & Adair, Linda S., 2007. "Quantifying the urban environment: A scale measure of urbanicity outperforms the urban-rural dichotomy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(7), pages 1407-1419, April.
    4. Rodrigo Cardoso & Evert Meijers & Maarten van Ham & Martijn Burger & Duco de Vos, 2019. "Why bright city lights dazzle and illuminate: A cognitive science approach to urban promises," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(2), pages 452-470, February.
    5. Emily Sohn, 2022. "Tackling the mental-health crisis in young people," Nature, Nature, vol. 608(7924), pages 39-41, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tomas Hanell, 2022. "Unmet Aspirations and Urban Malaise," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 83-103, November.
    2. Echeverría, Lucía & Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto, 2022. "Active Commuting and the Health of Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 15572, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Maria E Hermosillo-Gallardo & Russell Jago & Simon J Sebire, 2018. "Association between urbanicity and physical activity in Mexican adolescents: The use of a composite urbanicity measure," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-16, September.
    4. Yin, Junze, 2023. "Dynamical fractal: Theory and case study," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    5. Tao, Yinhua & van Ham, Maarten & Petrović, Ana & Ta, Na, 2023. "A household perspective on the commuting paradox: Longitudinal relationships between commuting time and subjective wellbeing for couples in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    6. Lucia Kvasková & Karel Rečka & Stanislav Ježek & Petr Macek, 2022. "Time Spent on Daily Activities and Its Association with Life Satisfaction among Czech Adolescents from 1992 to 2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-14, August.
    7. Kroesen, Maarten, 2022. "Working from home during the corona-crisis is associated with higher subjective well-being for women with long (pre-corona) commutes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 14-23.
    8. Mars, Lidón & Arroyo, Rosa & Ruiz, Tomás, 2022. "Mobility and wellbeing during the covid-19 lockdown. Evidence from Spain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 107-129.
    9. Bhaskar Jyoti Neog, 2022. "Temperature shocks and rural labour markets: evidence from India," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 1-20, March.
    10. Mouratidis, Kostas, 2021. "How COVID-19 reshaped quality of life in cities: A synthesis and implications for urban planning," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    11. Luca Salvati & Margherita Carlucci, 2020. "Shaping Dimensions of Urban Complexity: The Role of Economic Structure and Socio-Demographic Local Contexts," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 263-285, January.
    12. Damian Whittard & Felix Ritchie & Van Phan & Alex Bryson & John Forth & Lucy Stokes & Carl Singleton, 2023. "The perils of pre-filling: lessons from the UK's Annual Survey of Hours and Earning microdata," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2023-11, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    13. Melina Stein & Luca Nitschke & Laura Trost & Ansgar Dirschauer & Jutta Deffner, 2022. "Impacts of Commuting Practices on Social Sustainability and Sustainable Mobility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-18, April.
    14. Navarrete-Hernandez, Pablo & Christopher Zegras, P., 2023. "Mind the perception gap: The impact of bus rapid transit infrastructure on travelers’ perceptions of affective subjective well-being," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    15. Margherita Carlucci & Ilaria Zambon & Luca Salvati, 2020. "Diversification in urban functions as a measure of metropolitan complexity," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(7), pages 1289-1305, September.
    16. Dagmara Stangierska & Iwona Kowalczuk & Ksenia Juszczak-Szelągowska & Katarzyna Widera & Weronika Ferenc, 2022. "Urban Environment, Green Urban Areas, and Life Quality of Citizens—The Case of Warsaw," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-15, September.
    17. Van de Poel, Ellen & O'Donnell, Owen & Van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2009. "Urbanization and the spread of diseases of affluence in China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 200-216, July.
    18. Falchetta, G. & Noussan, M. & Hammad, A.T., 2021. "Comparing paratransit in seven major African cities: An accessibility and network analysis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    19. Carba, Delia B. & Tan, Vivencia L. & Adair, Linda S., 2009. "Early childhood length-for-age is associated with the work status of Filipino young adults," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 7-17, March.
    20. Townley, Greg & Brusilovskiy, Eugene & Salzer, Mark S., 2017. "Urban and non-urban differences in community living and participation among individuals with serious mental illnesses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 223-230.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:3g2d8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.