The Impact of Modern Economic Growth on Urban–Rural Differences in Subjective Well-Being

SummaryAt low levels of economic development there are substantial gaps favoring urban over rural areas in income, education, and occupational structure, and consequently a large excess of urban over rural life satisfaction, despite important urban problems of pollution, congestion, and the like. At more advanced development levels, these economic differentials tend to disappear, and rural areas approach or exceed urban in life satisfaction. Both across-country and within-country regression analyses of 2005–08 data from the Gallup World Poll support these conclusions.