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Inequality in happiness: inequality in countries compared across countries

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  • Veenhoven, Ruut

Abstract

Cross-national studies on happiness have focused on differences in level of happiness. The focus of this paper is on spread in happiness in the nation, also called ‘inequality in happiness’. Inequality in happiness in nations can be measured by the size of the standard deviation of responses to survey questions about the ‘overall appreciation of one’s life-as-a-whole’. This paper considers spread in happiness in 28 countries around 1980. Contrary to notions of a ‘divided’ society none of these countries shows a bi-modal distribution of happiness. All distribution are uni-modal, but the distributions are not equally flat. There are considerable differences in size of the standard deviations. These differences are not a statistical artifact of variation in level of happiness and appear quite constant through time. Inequality in happiness appears to be greater in the socio-economically most unequal countries and smaller in politically democratic and economically developed nations. Contrary to expectation, inequality in happiness appears to be more closely linked to social equality among rich nations than among not-so-rich ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Veenhoven, Ruut, 1990. "Inequality in happiness: inequality in countries compared across countries," MPRA Paper 11275, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:11275
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/11275/1/MPRA_paper_11275.pdf
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    1. repec:cup:apsrev:v:65:y:1971:i:04:p:991-1017_13 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ruut Veenhoven, 2005. "Inequality Of Happiness in Nations," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 351-355, December.
    2. Teresa Maria García-Muñoz & Juliette Milgram-Baleix & Omar Odeh-Odeh, 2019. "Inequality and Life Satisfaction in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: The Role of Opportunity," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-25, May.
    3. Thomas Tanner & Lindsey Jones, 2015. "Measuring ‘Subjective Resilience’ – Using People’s Perceptions to Quantify Household Resilience," Working Papers id:7252, eSocialSciences.
    4. Wim Kalmijn & Ruut Veenhoven, 2005. "Measuring Inequality of Happiness in Nations: In Search for Proper Statistics," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 357-396, December.
    5. Kayoko Ishii & Isamu Yamamoto, 2025. "Correction: Trends in Income and Well-Being Inequality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 583-591, August.
    6. Arletta Isaeva & Raufhon Salahodjaev, 2021. "Correlates of Life Satisfaction Inequality in Russia," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(5), pages 2251-2269, October.
    7. Umakrishnan Kollamparambil, 2020. "Happiness, Happiness Inequality and Income Dynamics in South Africa," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 201-222, January.
    8. Umakrishnan Kollamparambil, 2021. "Socio-Economic Inequality of Wellbeing: A Comparison of Switzerland and South Africa," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 555-574, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

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