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Description
Northern Ireland (NI), which was torn apart by the Troubles in the late 20th century, has a history of political and socioeconomic hardships and thus currently harbors many social conditions that typically would be connected to lower life satisfaction (BBC, European Commission). However, NI’s happiness index is the highest of the countries in the UK, and higher than that of the United States (ONS, OECD). One proposed explanation for this apparent contradiction is that NI's happiness is due to a strong social capital (ONS). In order to explore the relationships between happiness, social capital, and socioeconomic status, I surveyed 30 randomly selected residents of Belfast, NI about their life satisfaction as well as other factors such as their volunteering frequency and the influence of their religious beliefs. By performing statistical analyses on the survey data and mapping responses to different districts of Belfast, we explore correlations (if any) between happiness and a variety of social/socioeconomic factors. These correlations can potentially be generalized to communities beyond Belfast, including areas of the United States that face similar issues of wealth inequality and unemployment, in future studies
Publication Date
Spring 2020
Recommended Citation
Njoo, Lucille and Strauss, Eric, "Happiness Index in Belfast, Northern Ireland" (2020). Center for Urban Resilience Research Posters. 52.
https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cures_posters/52
