Happiness and spatial inequality: past, present, and future
Why are people happier in certain places as opposed to others? Understanding why people choose to live in a certain area, the elements they take into account when making this decision, and the value that they place on each deciding factor has been a longstanding question in the Social Sciences. On the other hand, the distribution of happiness across places and the causes and consequences of inequality in happiness across space have been studied to a lesser extent. In this chapter, I begin by reflecting on past approaches to measuring spatial inequality, on the important insights that this research has produced, and on the limitations associated with these traditional approaches. Next, I review some current evidence on the spatial inequality of happiness, discuss its implications for policy making, and suggest some promising avenues for the future.
30 August 2024
Published in Encyclopedia of Happiness, Quality of Life and Subjective Wellbeing (2024), Edited by Hilke Brockmann and Roger Fernandez-Urbano, pp. 417a??423, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
DOI: 10.4337/9781800889675.00066
This Chapter is part of the centre's Community Wellbeing programme.