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.