What Makes Life Meaningful? Views From 17 Advanced Economies

26 comments
  1. Surprised about the lower ranking of friends in a lot of these countries – doesn’t even make the top 5 in some of them! I personally put friends at almost the same level as family and don’t think my life would very meaningful without them.

  2. Is occupation used as an example of purpose or status / both ? Like why it’s important.. If material wellbeings are not the main reason to rank it highly. Its kind of sad *paid* occupation is seen as the only way to achieve purpose and worthy of status

  3. SK material well-being is spot on. What’s up with Spain though, why is family relatively unimportant?

  4. I can just about understand “family” ranking high across the board, but I would also have expected “friends” and “health” to rank above “occupation” throughout Europe.

  5. This seems pretty accurate for us and I’m glad this is how we stack up, I think it’s a nice way to live generally.

  6. Family does not have the same impact across he board

    Also should include age groups, guarantee parents and grandparents put health way higher for all countries

  7. >Sound Korea: Material well-being

    Interesting and also unsurprising how dominant the reflection of the consequences of that are, in cultural works like Parasite or Squid Game.

  8. As someone without a family who has never derived much meaning from it, I wonder how much meaning I’m missing in my life by my circumstances. That said, my personal list of values would prob be super selfish, hobbies, health, friends, freedom, etc. in some order.

  9. Well, Spain is surprisingly low in family and friends, maybe because we have a VERY family oriented life, to the point of being leaving home is a display of success.

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