The Good Life, Affluence, and Self-reported Happiness: Introducing the Good Life Index and Debunking Two Popular Myths

• We propose an individual level Good Life Index, based on Skidelsky and Skidelsky (2013).
• This GLI covers health, security, friendship, respect, leisure, and self-development.
• Using data from the 2012 EQLS we test and falsify two major claims of the theory.
• Europeans’ quality of life is enhanced by national affluence.
• The basic goods exert a positive influence on subjective well-being.

SummaryThis paper examines two highly controversial questions about human well-being in the richer part of the world. First, is people’s quality of life (still) enhanced by national prosperity? Many scholars doubt this, in particular advocates of de-growth. The second question concerns the relationship between the good life and self-reported happiness: Do people chiefly report being happy and satisfied for reasons embodied in achieving a good life? For addressing these issues we draw on a novel quality of life approach, the ‘elements of the good life’ as sketched out by Skidelsky and Skidelsky in 2013. This approach focuses on life results in seven domains: health, security, friendship, respect, leisure, personality, and harmony with nature. Our article refines the original concept and suggests a way to measure the well-being of individuals with the help of the Good Life Index. By analyzing data for 30 European countries from the most recent European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) within a multilevel framework, we can show that Europeans’ life-quality is better in wealthier societies, and that Europeans are authentically happy.