Life satisfaction

Life satisfaction is your big-picture view of your own life. It answers a simple question: when you step back and look at your life as a whole, how do you feel about it? Only you can answer, because you judge it by your own standards.

This page explains how researchers measure life satisfaction and what tends to go along with it. It also covers what research does and does not show about money and age. Finally, it explains when a low score is a reason to reach out.

What is life satisfaction?

In 1985, psychologist Ed Diener and his colleagues published the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). It has five short statements. It focuses only on overall life satisfaction. It does not measure related things such as good feelings or loneliness.¹ People's scores are fairly stable over time, and the scale works for different age groups.¹ It takes about a minute to complete, and it has been translated into many languages.²

Life satisfaction is not the same as mood. Researchers Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton described two sides of wellbeing:⁸

• Emotional wellbeing is how your days feel: how often you feel joy, stress, sadness, anger or affection.
• Life evaluation is what you think about your life when you reflect on it.

The two have different patterns. In their study, income and education were more closely tied to life evaluation. Health, caregiving, loneliness and smoking had more to do with daily emotions.⁸ So a person can be satisfied with life overall and still have hard days, or the other way around.

How the SWLS is scored

You rate each of the five statements from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The total runs from 5 to 35.³ Diener's guide to the scale describes these ranges:³

Our Life satisfaction test uses a closely related set of labels from the same research group. Either way, the score is a starting point for reflection, not a grade.

The guide also notes that a low score after a recent loss or setback often rises again with time. A score that stays low for a long time is more of a signal that something needs to change.³

What goes along with higher life satisfaction?

Relationships

Diener's guide names close, supportive relationships with family and friends as the most important influence on life satisfaction.³ In one well-known study of 222 college students, the happiest 10% had stronger friendships and romantic relationships than less happy students. Good relationships seemed necessary for high happiness, but not enough on their own. The happiest people still had bad moods at times.⁴ This was a small study of young adults, so it is only one piece of the picture.

Losing a close relationship can take a long time to recover from.³ See Loneliness and Ways to feel more connected.

Health

Health and wellbeing affect each other. In older adults, conditions such as heart disease, arthritis and chronic lung disease go along with lower wellbeing and more low mood. Wellbeing may also help protect health over time.⁷

Work and roles

Work, volunteering, caregiving and other roles add to life satisfaction when they feel meaningful and fit your strengths.³

Losing a job can hit hard. A German study followed more than 24,000 people for 15 years. Life satisfaction dropped sharply with unemployment. On average, people moved back toward their old level, but they did not fully return to it, even after they found new work.⁵

A larger review pooled long-term data from about 66,000 people in 188 publications. It looked at marriage, divorce, the death of a spouse, having a child, job loss, a new job, retirement and moving. For most of these events, the effects on life satisfaction were stronger and more consistent than the effects on day-to-day feelings. Their effects did not simply depend on whether the event seemed good or bad.⁶

Does money buy life satisfaction?

This question has a long and lively debate. Here is what the main U.S. studies found.

2010: more money, more satisfaction, but daily feelings level off. Kahneman and Deaton studied more than 450,000 survey answers. Life evaluation rose steadily with income. Day-to-day emotional wellbeing also rose, but it stopped improving at about $75,000 a year. Low income made painful events, such as divorce, illness and being alone, hurt even more.⁸

2021: no plateau found. Matthew Killingsworth collected about 1.7 million in-the-moment reports from 33,391 working U.S. adults, who answered brief check-ins during their day. Both daily feelings and life satisfaction kept rising with income. He found no leveling off at $75,000.⁹

2023: the two sides team up. Killingsworth, Kahneman and Barbara Mellers worked together on purpose to settle the disagreement. This is called an adversarial collaboration. When they reanalyzed the data, the leveling off appeared only among the least happy people. For happier people, happiness kept rising with income.¹⁰ They concluded that the 2010 study's yes-or-no questions could not tell degrees of happiness apart. Its results were better described as being about unhappiness.¹⁰

What this means in plain terms:

• These studies measured income on a scale where each doubling of income goes with about the same rise in wellbeing.⁹ That means an extra $10,000 a year is linked with a much bigger rise for someone earning $25,000 than for someone earning $250,000. This is what researchers mean by diminishing returns.
• Money seems to matter most when it protects people from hardship. Low income makes life's blows hurt more.⁸
• For the least happy people, income above a certain level was not linked with more happiness.¹⁰
• These are averages from U.S. surveys. They show links, not proof that money causes happiness. The 2021 study included only people with jobs.⁹

Does life satisfaction change with age?

You may have heard that happiness follows a U-shape: high in youth, lowest in midlife, then rising again in old age.

Evidence for the U-shape. A 2008 study looked at about 500,000 Americans and Western Europeans. With other factors held equal, happiness was lowest in middle age. A similar U-shape appeared in 72 countries, rich and poor.¹¹

Evidence that it is not universal. A 2015 review used the Gallup World Poll, which covers more than 160 countries. It found a U-shape in wealthy English-speaking countries, with the lowest point at ages 45 to 54. But in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, wellbeing fell steadily with age. It also fell with age in Latin America. In sub-Saharan Africa it changed little.⁷

The debate. Other researchers argue the U-shape is less solid than people think. Most studies compare different people of different ages at one time, which cannot show how one person changes. Studies that follow people over many years show mixed results. And one average curve hides the many different paths people take through life.¹²

The takeaway: age alone does not decide how satisfied you will be. Circumstances, health, relationships and meaning matter a great deal at every age. For later life, see Wellbeing and resilience in later life and Retirement and mental health.

Can you raise your life satisfaction?

Some things that shape life satisfaction are outside your control. Others can shift. Diener's guide suggests that when dissatisfaction lasts, it can help to look at your expectations, your thinking patterns and how you spend your time. Talking with a friend, faith leader or counselor can help you find a direction.³

Ideas to start with:

• Name what matters to you. Our Values Compass and ACT lesson 1: finding your values can help.
• Invest in one relationship. A regular call or visit with one person is a good start.
• Add meaning, not only pleasure. See Meaning and purpose.
• Build small daily habits. See Everyday habits for wellbeing.
• Plan small steps. The Activity Garden helps you plan activities and track your mood.

Common questions

Is my score the same as how happy I am?

Not exactly. The SWLS asks you to judge your life as a whole. Happiness in daily life is a related but separate thing. You can be satisfied with your life and still have a stressful week.^1,8

My score dropped after a hard event. Is that normal?

Yes. Big losses and setbacks often lower life satisfaction for a while.^3,6 Many people recover over time, though some events, like job loss, can leave a lasting mark.⁵ If the drop comes with signs of depression, talk with your doctor.

When to get help

A low score is not a diagnosis. But reach out to a doctor, counselor or other professional if:

• Your score is very low (5 to 9), or it has stayed low for a long time. Diener's guide notes that help from others is often needed at this level.³
• Low life satisfaction comes with low mood or loss of interest that lasts two weeks or more
• You feel hopeless or stuck, or you are drinking more to cope

Our depression check-in can help you decide on next steps. See Depression and How to find a therapist.

Education only. This page is general information written from the sources listed. It is not medical, legal or financial advice and does not replace a doctor, therapist or lawyer who knows your situation. How we write and check pages.