Life satisfaction of older people in six European countries: findings from the European Study on Adult Well-Being

Abstract

The European Study on Adult Well-being (ESAW), funded by the European Union, was conducted during 2002 and 2003 in Austria, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and Sweden. The aim of the interdisciplinary study was the conceptual clarification and the identification of factors contributing to life satisfaction for older people. Five key components were included in the study: (1) physical health and functional status; (2) self-resources; (3) material security; (4) social support resources; and (5) life activity. A representative population of adults aged 50-90 years living independently (not institutionalised) was selected in each participating country, and the actual sample size came very close to the target of 2,000, ranging from 1,854 to 2,417. The total European sample comprised 12,478 respondents. In this paper, mean differences in general and domain-specific life satisfaction between the six countries including age groups and gender are reported and discussed with respect to contextual national characteristics. In general the findings showed a high level in all chosen indicators of life satisfaction across the six countries. National differences depended on the domain under consideration, but the results showed in general that The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Austria had higher values of life satisfaction compared to Sweden and Italy.

Keywords: Cross-national differences; Gerontology; Life satisfaction; Successful ageing.

Fig. 1

Mean differences in subjective health ratings by age group and gender

Fig. 2

Mean differences in general life satisfaction by age group and gender