Our World
in Data
It’s Giving Season. Help us do more with a donation.
Data

Happiness: Happy

See all data and research on:
Trust

About this data

Happiness: Happy
% of respondents replying "very happy" or "quite happy" when asked "Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, quite happy, not very happy or not at all happy?"
Source
Integrated Values Surveys (2022) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
November 27, 2023
Next expected update
January 2025
Date range
1984–2022
Unit
%

Related research and writing

A dark blue background with a lighter blue world map superimposed over it. Yellow text that says Happiness and Life Satisfaction by Our World in Data

Happiness and Life Satisfaction

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser
A dark blue background with a lighter blue world map superimposed over it. Yellow text that says Happiness and Life Satisfaction by Our World in Data

Bonheur et satisfaction

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser

Explore charts that include this data

Happiness vs. life satisfaction

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The European Value Study (EVS) and the World Value Survey (WVS) are two large-scale, cross-national, and repeated cross-sectional longitudinal survey research programs. Since their emergence in the early 1980s, the EVS has conducted 5 survey waves (every 9 years) and the WVS has conducted 7 survey waves (every 5 years). Both research programs include a large number of questions, which have been replicated over time and across the EVS and the WVS surveys. Such repeated questions constitute the Integrated Values Surveys (IVS), the joint EVS-WVS time-series data which at the moment covers a 40-years period (1981-2022).

Retrieved on
November 27, 2023
Retrieved from
https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSEVStrend.jsp
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
    

  • EVS (2022): EVS Trend File 1981-2017. GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA7503 Data file Version 3.0.0, doi:10.4232/1.14021
    • 

  • Haerpfer, C., Inglehart, R., Moreno, A., Welzel, C., Kizilova, K., Diez-Medrano J., M. Lagos, P. Norris, E. Ponarin & B. Puranen et al. (eds.). 2022. World Values Survey Trend File (1981-2022) Cross-National Data-Set. Madrid, Spain  &  Vienna,  Austria:  JD  Systems  Institute  &  WVSA Secretariat. Data File Version 3.0.0, doi:10.14281/18241.23.
    •

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline
Notes on our processing step for this indicator

We collected the data by merging the World Values Survey and the European Values Study, following the methodology described in the Integrated Values Surveys website.

We processed the indicators from microdata of the Integrated Values Surveys (IVS) using Stata. Weights are applied for each country.

We calculated regional aggregations for some indicators, by weighting each country by its population size.

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Happiness: Happy”, part of the following publication: Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, Max Roser and Pablo Arriagada (2016) - “Trust”. Data adapted from Integrated Values Surveys. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-people-who-say-they-are-happy [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Integrated Values Surveys (2022) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Integrated Values Surveys (2022) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Happiness: Happy” [dataset]. Integrated Values Surveys, “Integrated Values Surveys (IVS) Version 3” [original data]. Retrieved December 11, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-people-who-say-they-are-happy