May 29, 2011

Are People Happy in Ireland

Happiness can be measured in terms of life satisfaction, the presence of positive experiences and feelings, and the absence of negative experiences and feelings. Such measures, while subjective, are a useful complement to compare the quality of life across countries.

For Ireland, like throughout much of the OECD, self-reported life satisfaction has been rising over the last decade. In recent polling, 68% of people in Ireland were satisfied with their life . The OECD average was 63.4%

People from these countries all reported being more satisfied with life than Irish people: -
United States ,Israel ,Austria , Australia, Belgium , New Zealand , Switzerland ,Canada
Sweden , Norway, Finland ,Denmark ,Netherlands (91% satisfied)

The most unsatisfied were Chinese people (9.6% satisfied) followed by Indians (14.3%)


77% of people in Ireland reported having more positive experiences in an average day (feelings of rest, pride in accomplishment, enjoyment, etc) than negative ones (pain, worry, sadness, boredom, etc). This figure is higher than the OECD average of 72%.

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