Subjective Well-Being in Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia – Rural-Urban Differences and Cross-National Comparison
Subjective Well-Being in Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia – Rural-Urban Differences and Cross-National Comparison

Summary/Abstract: The importance of measuring subjective aspects of well-being for a more accurate assessment of the quality of life has been increasingly recognized in theory and empirical studies. In this paper, we analyze and compare subjective well-being (SWB) in rural and urban areas of four countries in the post-Yugoslav space that were included in Round 9 (2018) of the European Social Survey (ESS), two members of the European Union (EU), Croatia and Slovenia, and two non-EU countries, Montenegro and Serbia. We have constructed the Subjective Well-being Index (SWI) based on available ESS items, as a more concise version of VanderWeele’s Flourishing Index (2017). Our SWI consists of three domains: (1) happiness and life satisfaction, (2) mental and physical health, and (3) financial and material stability. Results indicate that, regardless of the settlement type, the respondents from two EU countries have a higher perceived SWI than those from two non-EU countries. Rural-urban differences were found in all four countries, with urban respondents scoring significantly higher on the SWI than their rural counterparts. This research fills the gap in SWB literature in these countries and their rural and urban areas, as well as offers a new comparative insight between them.

• Details
• Contents