As we estimate here, 68% of human beings--4.6 billion people--would say that religion is important in their daily lives. Past studies have found that the religious, on average, have higher subjective well-being (SWB). Yet, people are rapidly leaving organized religion in economically developed nations where religious freedom is high. Why would people leave religion if it enhances their happines...

Empowerment is fundamentally about people and groups gaining more control over their own affairs. Because the forces that prevent and enable such control are complex (both objective and subjective) and multilayered (micro-, meso-, and macrostructural), empowerment has been theorized as a multilevel construct that is concerned with both processes and outcomes and with both subjective experiences...

Politicians typically focus on short-term economic issues; but, a nation’s long-term economic well-being is directly linked to its rate of economic growth. In turn, its growth rate is directly linked to the economically relevant skills of its population. Until recently, however, economists have found it hard to confirm this through empirical analysis because of difficulties in measuring the ski...

BACKGROUND whether socioeconomic position over the life course influences the wellbeing of older people similarly in different societies is not known. OBJECTIVE to investigate the magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities in life satisfaction among individuals in early old age and the influence of the welfare state regime on the associations. DESIGN comparative study using data from Wave 2 an...

OBJECTIVES To examine whether the association between emotional support and indicators of health and quality of life differs between Canadian and Latin American older adults. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis of the International Mobility in Aging Study (IMIAS). Social support from friends, family members, children and partner was measured with a previously validated social network and support ...

The positive relationship between wealth and wellbeing has received considerable attention over the last three decades. However, little is known about how the significance of wealth for the health and wellbeing of older adults may vary across societies. Furthermore, researchers tend to focus mainly on income rather than other aspects of financial resources even though older adults often rely on...

The crucial role of biodiversity in the links between ecosystems and societies has been repeatedly highlighted both as source of wellbeing and as a target of human actions, but not all aspects of biodiversity are equally important to different ecosystem services. Similarly, different social actors have different perceptions of and access to ecosystem services, and therefore, they have different...

At some time in the 1780s the Industrial Revolution began—firstly in Britain then in other European countries. Technical and commercial advances enabled European societies to break through their pre-industrial production ceiling, initiating the seemingly limitless multiplication of goods and services. Expanding industry attracted labourers and their families to towns and cities, which grew rapi...

This paper aims to take a holistic approach to studying fear of crime by testing predictors at multiple levels of analyses. Data from the European Social Survey (N = 56,752 from 29 countries) were used to test and extend the Income Inequality and Sense of Vulnerability Hypotheses. The findings confirm that (1) individuals in societies with greater income inequalities are more fearful of crime, ...

Evidence is accumulating that well-being in high-income societies may be static or in decline. One influential theory argues that this is because 'modern' societies are influenced by values of materialism, individualism and consumerism. Does this intellectual critique resonate with ordinary people? This article reports on interviews with purposefully selected groups in Scotland, where the relev...