Efforts have been made for some years to use official statistics to produce indicators of well-being that are more meaningful than just per capita GDP, including subjective well-being. A module dedicated to this was added to the 2013 EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) survey. The results of the survey show that in terms of general satisfaction with life, the Grand Duchy compares relatively favourably with the other European countries, with an average score of 7.5 out of 10, compared with an average of 7.1 in the EU-28.
What jumps out initially is that in the Grand Duchy there are more people who feel their lives have meaning than people who say they are satisfied with their lives. For the population overall, the score for a meaningful life is 8.1 out of 10, compared with 7.5 out of 10 for satisfaction with life. These scores put the Grand Duchy in 3rd place for a meaningful life, and in 10th place for satisfaction with life.
The results show that there is substantial inequality in terms of satisfaction with life according to income. The higher a household's income, the more likely its members are to be satisfied with life. For the 'meaning of life' variable (people were asked if they think what they do is 'worthwhile'), there is only a weak link (at any rate weaker than for satisfaction with life) with income. This is particularly true in the Grand Duchy.
The study also shows that people living in a household with children feel their lives are more worthwhile (8.2 compared with 7.8 for people living alone), and that satisfaction with life declines with age, and more among women than among men.
(Source: STATEC / editorial team of the portal at 'www.luxembourg.lu'.)