The Happiness Revolution in Europe

This Element explores the decline in happiness across countries and suggests ways to improve societies, with Europe as an example.

Richard Ainley Easterlin (Author), Kelsey James O'Connor (Author)

9781009493659, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 April 2025

88 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.6 cm, 0.268 kg

There is now a Happiness Revolution to go along with the earlier Industrial and Demographic Revolutions. The Happiness Revolution is captured using people's happiness scores, as reported in public surveys, whereas the earlier revolutions are reflected by economic production (such as GDP) and life expectancy. Increases in happiness are chiefly due to social-science welfare policies that alleviate people's foremost concerns – those centering on family life, health, and jobs. This Element traces the course of the Happiness Revolution throughout Europe since the 1980s when comprehensive and comparable data on people's happiness first become available. Which countries lead and which lag? How is happiness distributed – are the rich happier than the poor, men than women, old than young, native than foreign born, city than countryfolk? How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted happiness? These are among the questions addressed in this Element. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

1. Introduction
2. Happiness rankings and trends
3. Long term trends in happiness: driving forces
4. Happiness differences and inequality
5. Happiness differences among demographic groups
6. COVID-19 postscript
7. Summary and Conclusions
References.

Subject Areas: International economics [KCL]