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How happy are your neighbours? Variation in life satisfaction among 1200 Canadian neighbourhoods and communities

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  • John F Helliwell
  • Hugh Shiplett
  • Christopher P Barrington-Leigh

Abstract

This paper presents a new public-use dataset for community-level life satisfaction in Canada, based on more than 500,000 observations from the Canadian Community Health Surveys and the General Social Surveys. The country is divided into 1216 similarly sampled geographic regions, using natural, built, and administrative boundaries. A cross-validation exercise suggests that our choice of minimum sampling thresholds approximately maximizes the predictive power of our estimates. The resulting dataset reveals robust differences in life satisfaction between and across urban and rural communities. We compare aggregated life satisfaction data with a range of key census variables to illustrate some of the ways in which lives differ in the most and least happy communities.

Suggested Citation

  • John F Helliwell & Hugh Shiplett & Christopher P Barrington-Leigh, 2019. "How happy are your neighbours? Variation in life satisfaction among 1200 Canadian neighbourhoods and communities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-24, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0210091
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210091
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    1. John F. Helliwell & Christopher P. Barrington‐Leigh, 2010. "Viewpoint: Measuring and understanding subjective well‐being," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 729-753, August.
    2. Monica Brezzi & Marcos Diaz Ramirez, 2016. "Building subjective well-being indicators at the subnational level: A preliminary assessment in OECD regions," OECD Regional Development Working Papers 2016/3, OECD Publishing.
    3. Aqib Aslam & Luisa Corrado, 2012. "The geography of well-being," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 627-649, May.
    4. Andrew J. Oswald & Stephen Wu, 2011. "Well-Being across America," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1118-1134, November.
    5. A S Fotheringham & D W S Wong, 1991. "The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem in Multivariate Statistical Analysis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 23(7), pages 1025-1044, July.
    6. Christopher P. Barrington-Leigh & John F. Helliwell, 2008. "Empathy and Emulation: Life Satisfaction and the Urban Geography of Comparison Groups," NBER Working Papers 14593, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Edward L. Glaeser & Joshua D. Gottlieb & Oren Ziv, 2016. "Unhappy Cities," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S2), pages 129-182.
    8. Sehee Han & Heaseung Kim & Hee-Sun Lee, 2013. "A Multilevel Analysis of the Compositional and Contextual Association of Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being in Seoul, South Korea," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 185-202, March.
    9. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn, 2011. "Geography of European Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 101(3), pages 435-445, May.
    10. Oswald, Andrew J. & Wu, Stephen, 2010. "Objective Confirmation of Subjective Measures of Human Well-being: Evidence from the USA," IZA Discussion Papers 4695, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Christopher P. Barrington-Leigh, 2013. "The Quebec Convergence and Canadian Life Satisfaction, 1985-2008," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 39(2), pages 193-219, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Amitrajeet A. Batabyal & Hamid Beladi, 2019. "Preference matching, income, and population distribution in urban and adjacent rural regions," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(5), pages 2201-2208, October.
    2. Luca S. D’Acci, 2020. "Urbanicity mental costs valuation: a review and urban-societal planning consideration," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 19(2), pages 223-235, November.
    3. Loschiavo, David, 2021. "Big-city life (dis)satisfaction? The effect of urban living on subjective well-being," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 740-764.
    4. Wilai Napa & Jumpee Granger & Siranee Kejkornkaew & Pornsiri Phuagsachart, 2020. "Family happiness among people in a Southeast Asian city: Grounded theory study," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(2), pages 292-299, June.
    5. Brunello, Giorgio, 2020. "Happier with Vocational Education?," IZA Discussion Papers 13739, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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