Predicting Happiness in Different Geographical Areas: Economic Conditions, Social Capital, and Interpersonal Relations

The study assesses cross-national differences in individuals’ happiness using aggregated data from 138 countries from 2013 to 2023. To capture structural patterns and significant differences, our analysis is based on long-term averages of economic development, inequality, life expectancy, social networks, interpersonal relations, civic and social participation, and the natural environment. The results confirmed that economic development and interpersonal relations are significant variables, correlated to an increased level of well-being. Happiness cannot be analyzed in isolation from these independent factors. Conditional quantile regression results show that economic development (β = 0.295–0.484–0.48, p < 0.001) and interpersonal relations (β = 0.019–0.020, p ≤ 0.001) are consistently associated with higher levels of happiness across the conditional distribution of the Happiness Index. Life expectancy shows no significant association at any quantile. The interaction between economic development and interpersonal relations is positive and statistically significant across all three conditional quantiles (τ = 0.25, 0.50, 0.75; p ≤ 0.01), highlighting that these two dimensions reinforce one another throughout the distribution of happiness. Happiness is a complex dimension of human well-being that might be explained using a combined material and post-material perspective. The findings underscore the multidimensional nature of happiness and support integrating economic conditions and post-material dimensions when analyzing cross-national subjective well-being.