The impact of digital literacy on subjective well-being: evidence from China

With the advancement of digital technology, digital literacy has gained prominence as a key determinant shaping individuals’ subjective well-being; however, it has remained underexplored in academic literature. This research utilizes the POLS method to investigate the impact of digital literacy on individuals’ subjective well-being, using data from the 2017 China General Social Survey (CGSS). To address potential endogeneity, we applied the instrumental variable approach, complemented by the Oprobit model and CMP estimation methods for robustness checks. The results demonstrate that digital literacy boosts both subjective happiness and life satisfaction, particularly among disadvantaged populations, such as women and low-income groups. Furthermore, digital literacy plays a significant role in reducing the well-being disparity between residents of underdeveloped and developed regions, as well as between urban and rural areas. The analysis also shows that digital literacy elevates residents’ subjective well-being mainly by alleviating employment vulnerability, enhancing human and social capital accumulation. By revealing the role of digital literacy in individuals’ subjective well-being, this study strengthens the formation mechanism of individual well-being perceptions in the context of technological advancement. This contributes to narrowing the digital gap and offers empirical support for public policies aimed at enhancing residents’ subjective well-being in the digital era. First published online 5 March 2026