Variable1	Measurement	Era2	Code	N	Source3
Happiness	3-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how happy would you say you are these days? – very happy – fairly happy – not too happy	late 1940s	HappinessHL3_1940s	7	WDH table 111B
		<1960s	happinessHL3_1960s	9
		1970s	HappinessHL3_1970s	18
		1980s	HappinessHL3_1980s	15
		1990s	HappinessHL3_1990s	13
	4-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how happy would you say you are these days? – very happy – happy – unhappy – very unhappy	1980s	HappinessHL4_1980s	25	WDH table 111C
		1990s	HappinessHL4_1990s	69
		early 2000s	HappinessHL4_2000s	51
	5-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how happy would you say you are these days? – very happy – happy – neither happy nor unhappy – unhappy – very unhappy	1970s	HappinessHL5_1970s	10	WDH table 111D
		1980s	HappinessHL5_1980s	16
		1990s	HappinessHL5_1990s	18
	3+4+5 step verbal scales transformed to range 0-104
		1970s	HappinessHLt_1970s	23	WDH tables 111B+111C+111D
		1980s	HappinessHLt_1980s	29
		1990s	HappinessHLt_1990s	74
Life satisfaction	3-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? – satisfied – so so – dissatisfied	early 1940s	HappinessLS3_1948	7	WDH table 121B
	4-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? – very satisfied – satisfied – dissatisfied – very dissatisfied	1970s	HappinessLS4_1970s	10	WDH table 121C
		1980s	HappinessLS4_1980s	14
		1990s	HappinessLS4_1990s	40
		early 2000s	HappinessLS4_2000s	56
	5-step verbal scale Typical item: Taking all together, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? – very satisfied – satisfied – neither satisfied not dissatisfied – dissatisfied – very dissatisfied	1970s	HappinessLS5_1970s	10	WDH table 121D
		1980s	HappinessLS5_1980s	15
		1990s	HappinessLS5_1990s	10
		early 2000s	HappinessLS5_2000s	2
	3+4+5-step verbal scales transformed to range 0-105
		1970s	HappinessLSst_1970s	17	WDH tables 121B+121C+ 121D
		1980s	HappinessLSst_1980s	19
		1990s	HappinessLSst_1990s	48
	10-step numerical scale Typical item: Taking all together, how satisfied are you with your life-as-a-whole these days? 1 very dissatisfied > 10 very satisfied transformed to range 0-106	1970-1979	HappinessLS10_1970s	18	WDH table 122F
		1980-1989	HappinessLS10_1980s	22
		1990-1999	HappinessLS10_1990s	71
		2000-2009	HappinessLS10_2000s	87
	11-step numerical scale Typical item: Taking all together, how satisfied are you with your life-as-a-whole these days? 0 very dissatisfied > 10 very satisfied	1970-1979	HappinessLS11_1970s	18	WDH table 122G
		1980-1989	HappinessLS11_1980s	12
		1990-1999	HappinessLS11_1990s	11
		2000-2009	HappinessLS11_2000s	125
		2010-
	10+11 step numerical scales transformed to range 0-10	1970-1979	HappinessLS10.11_1970s	18	WDH tables 122F+122G
		1980-1989	HappinessLS10.11_1980s	25
		1990-1999	HappinessLS10.11_1990s	72
		2000-2009	HappinessLS10.11_2000s	151
		2010-
		1975-1984	HappinessLS10.11_1975.1984	29
		1984-1994	HappinessLS10.11_1985-1994	43
		1995-2004	HappinessLS10.11_1995_2004	88
		2005-2014	HappinessLS10.11_2005-2014	159
	Change over time	1970s-80s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1970s-1980s	14	Computed subtracting later from earlier LS10.11 WDH tables 122F+122G
		1970s-90s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1970s-1990s	18
		1970s-00s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1970s-2000s	18
		1980s-90s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1980s-1990s	22
		1980s-00s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1980s-2000s	21
		1990s-00s	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1990s-2000s	70
		2000s-10s
		1975-1984 1985-1994	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1975.84_1985.94	26
		1975-1984 1995-2004	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1975.84_1995.2004	42
		1985-1994 1995-2004	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1985-1994_1995.2004	29
		1975-1984 2005-2014	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1974-84_2005-2014
		1985-1994 2005-2014	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1985-1994_2005-2014
		1995-1994 2005-2014	HappinessLS10.11_Change 1995-2004_2005-2014
Affect balance last weeks	Affect Balance Scale: 10 item scale Typical item: – During the past few weeks have you felt…? – That things were going your way (yes/no) – Lonely and remote from people (yes/no)				WDH table 222
		1970s	HappinessABS_1970s	7
		1980s	HappinessABS_1980s	24
		1990s	HappinessABS_1990s	39
Affect balance yesterday	Question: Would you like more days like yesterday? (yes/no)	2006	HappinessYesterdayAffect1_2006	130	WDH table 231
	Question: Did you experience a lot of the day… – enjoyment – sadness (yes/no)	2006	HappinessYesterdayaffect2_2006	130
	Average of Specific Affects: 16 item scale Typical item: – Now think about yesterday: Would you like more such days? (yes/no) – Did you experience the following feeling a lot of the day yesterday? How about enjoyment? (yes/no)	2006	HappinessYesterdayAffect3_2006	130	WDH table
	Question: Would you like more days like yesterday? Yes or No? % yes	2006-2008	HappinessYesterdayOK_2006.08	129	WDH table 24A
	14 questions on affects experienced yesterday % positive minus % negative affects	2006-2008	HappinessYesterdayABS_2006.08	129	WDH table 24G
		2006-2010	HappinessYesterdayABS_2006.10	146	WDH table 24G
Best-Worst possible life	11 step Cantril ladder Typical item: Here is a picture of a ladder, suppose that the top represents the best possible life and the bottom the worst possible life. Where on this ladder would you place your current life? 0 worst possible > 10 best possible	1960s	HappinessBW11_1960s	17	WDH table 32D
		1970s	HappinessBW11_1970s	12
		<1980s	HappinessBW11_1980s	2
		1990s	HappinessBW11_1990	3
		early 2000s	HappinessBW11_2000s	44
		2006	HappinessBW11_2006	132
		2006-09	HappinessBW11Gallup_2006.09	139
	11 step scale combined with 10-step scale stretched to 0-10	2000-2008	HappinessBW10.11-2000.08	138	WDH tables 32C+32D
Life fits wants	Typical item: On the whole my life is close to how I would like it to be – strongly agree – agree – neither agree nor disagree – disagree – strongly disagree	2006	HappinessLifeFitsWants5_2007	29	WDH table 34D
Life satisfaction + Contentment	Responses on question on Lifesatisfaction (HappinessLS10.11) completed with estimates based on responses to question on Contentment (HappinessBW11), both on scale 0-10 Estimated life satisfaction = 1.156 x observed score on the Best-Worst item – 0.457. This formula is based on a regression analysis of 103 nations in which both questions had been used in the same year. The 95% confidence interval around these estimated values is about 1.3 points, which means that these estimates are not very precise.	1960-1969	HappinessLSBW_1960s	14	WDH tables 122F+122G+32C+32D
		1970-1979	HappinessLSBW_1970s	18
		1980-1989	HappinessLSBW_1980s	27
		1990-1999	HappinessLSBW_1990s	72
		2000-2009	HappinessLSBW_2000s	154
		2005-2014	HappinessLSBW_2005-2014	160
Affect + Contentment	Diener/Tay index of subjective wellbeing: 1) Here is a picture of a ladder, suppose that the top represents the best possible life and the bottom the worst possible life. Where on this ladder would you place your current life? 0 worst possible > 10 best possible 2) Yesterday affect (yes/no) a: enjoyed, b: angry, c: sad, d: stress	2006-2013	HappinessABS-BW_2010s	163	Diener & Tay 2015, table 1
% dissatisfied with life	% below 3 on 10 step life satisfaction	1990-99	LS10_below3_1990s	61	Computed from World Value Surveys 1990, 1995, 1999
	% below 4 on 10 step life satisfaction	1990-99	LS10_below4_1990s	64
	% below 5 on 10 step life satisfaction	1990-99	LS10_below5_1990s	79
	% below 5 on 10 step life satisfaction	2005	LS10_below5_2005	53	Computed from World Values Surveys 2005
11-15 aged	Self report on single question: Here is a picture of a ladder. The top of the ladder ’10’ respresents the best possible life for you and the bottom ‘0’ the worst possible life for you. In general, where on the ladder do you feel you stand at the moment? 0 worst possible > 10 best possible	2001-2006	HappinessBW11_11.15aged_2001.06	37	Currie et al. 2004 Currie et al. 2008
		2001-2006	HappinessBW11_11.15agedboys_2001.06	37
		2001-2006	HappinessBW11_11.15agedgirls_2001.06	37

Related topics: Affect, Inequality in happiness, Inequality adjusted happiness, Happy Life Years (HLY)
Related themes: Subjective well-being

The dataset States of Nations is about characteristics of countries in periods (macro variables). It is part of the World Database of Happiness.Though developed for the identification of societal conditions for happiness, this source can also be used for other purposes.