Life satisfaction
About
Life satisfaction is a person's overall assessment of their quality of life at a point in time, including their feelings and attitudes towards their health. It is an indicator of well-being and is related to a person's happiness and how well their current situation meets their needs.
Relationship to health and equity
Many factors influence a person’s life satisfaction, including mental and physical health, ability to perform daily tasks, activity level and community conditions. Health, particularly mental health, affects life satisfaction and life satisfaction also affects health. Life expectancy is almost nine years longer for people with high levels of life satisfaction compared to those with low levels.
The conditions of our physical environment, like stable housing and commute length, all impact life satisfaction. Social and economic factors such as employment, income, relationships and other factors also affect life satisfaction. Yet not all communities have the same access and experiences that support improved life satisfaction.
Relationship to systems and structures
How we create and maintain laws, policies, institutional practices, governance, budgets, worldviews, culture and norms all impact life satisfaction. In many cases, policies or practices impact our experience of how well our current situation meets our needs, and how satisfied we are. For example, constant changes in immigration policies and practices have a direct effect on life satisfaction for people trying to migrate to the U.S. and for people who already live in the U.S. Indirectly, immigration policies impact everyone’s experience of well-being through culture, food, worker availability, wage effects and tax revenue.
Our culture around work also impacts life satisfaction. Norms around work-life balance, autonomy over one’s own work, a belief that one’s job contributes to meaning in the world, and a culture of respect, inclusivity, and psychological safety, impact daily life satisfaction.
Additional Reading
- Diener, E., Suh, E., Lucas, R.E., Smith, H.L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin. 125 (2), 276–302. doi:10.1037//0033-2909.125.2.276. ISSN 0033-2909.
- Lee, H., Singh, G.K. (2020). Inequalities in Life Expectancy and All-Cause Mortality in the United States by Levels of Happiness and Life Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Study. International Journal of Maternal and Child Health and AIDS. 9(3), 305-15.
- Vázquez, C., Rahona, J.J., Gómez, D., Caballero, F.F., Hervás, G. (2015). A national representative study of the relative impact of physical and psychological problems on life satisfaction. Journal of Happiness Studies 16,135-48.
- Oishi, S., Cha, Y., Komiya, A., Ono, H. (2022). Money and happiness: the income–happiness correlation is higher when income inequality is higher. PNAS Nexus 1(5):doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac224
- Quakenbush C, Malde J, Bunten B. 2024. Why Immigration Policy Matters for the National Debt. Bipartisan Policy Center. Available at https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/why-immigration-policy-matters-for-the-national-debt/#:~:text=Economic%20Impacts-,Labor%20force,a%20decade%20toward%20deficit%20reduction.