Study: Here life is the most meaningful and flourishing

It is not about who feels most happy, but who lives a life that is most « flourishing », that is, a meaningful, perfect and thriving life.

Unlike previous surveys have ” The Global Flourishing Study “Tried to capture many more pages of happiness and well -being.

– The result is that countries like Finland and Sweden that usually end up high when you mainly look at happiness, now end up in the middle, says Tyler Vanderwele, professor at Harvard University in the US and one of the researchers behind the project.

When 200,000 people In 22 countries, they have said Indonesia, overall at the top, followed by Mexico and the Philippines, while Japan is at the bottom. Overall, participants in high -income countries such as Sweden and the United States estimate higher in areas related to the material, such as financial security. People in middle -income countries, on the other hand, estimate themselves higher on parts related to social contexts and close relationships.

One thing that surprised the researchers was that the classic U-shaped curve where people are most satisfied with life as a young person and as older but with a middle age dip no longer applies.

– We see that in many countries it is more common for young people to be less satisfied and happy and that well -being rises with age. That young people feel bad is worrying, says Tyler Vanderwele.

Two countries that stand out is Poland and Tanzania. There, the curve only goes down with age and people experience the worst quality of life after 60. In Mexico and Australia, the connection to well -being and age, on the other hand, is very weak.

One conclusion is that people in high -income countries end up quite low when it comes to « meaning to life ». In general, people who belong to religious communities or participate in religious activities higher on several of the indicators included. For example, Sweden ends up in place 19 out of 22 when it comes to meaningfulness.

Overall, it is fairly even between the sexes, except in some countries. In Brazil, men feel they have a more thriving life while in Japan the women who placed higher.

The researchers write that it is good to know what makes people feel that they are booming and have perfect lives because it can provide clues to factors that need to be addressed.