A multidimensional understanding of prosperity and well-being at country level: Data-driven explorations

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Psychology
• Sociology

Background:

• Numerous country-level indicators exist for prosperity, well-being, and quality of life.
• The underlying factor structure of these diverse indicators remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the factor structure of country-level quality of life indicators.
• To develop an empirically-derived multidimensional framework for measuring societal quality of life.

Main Methods:

• Factor analysis applied to tens of subjective and objective country-level indicators.
• Replication of the factor structure using data from previous years and a partially different variable set.

Main Results:

• Identified three distinct, complementary factors: 'socio-economic progress', 'psycho-social functioning', and 'negative affectivity'.
• The 'socio-economic progress' factor includes life satisfaction, linking it to objective conditions.
• 'Psycho-social functioning' comprises subjective well-being and positive affect, while 'negative affectivity' includes negative states.
• Factors showed moderate intercorrelations and differential associations with cultural/ecological variables, supporting discriminant validity.

Conclusions:

• A multidimensional approach is necessary for measuring societal quality of life, cautioning against over-reliance on single indicators like life satisfaction.
• The identified three-factor structure offers a robust framework for conceptualizing and measuring national well-being.
• This study represents an initial empirical step toward systematizing diverse approaches to societal quality of life.