Not Flourishing

Abstract We examine the age profile of subjective wellbeing and illbeing in the 22 countries appearing in the Global Flourishing Study (GFS) 2022–2024. We propose an alternative to the Flourishing Index at the heart of so much of the GFS literature which has better statistical properties. We call it the Revised Flourishing Index (RFI). The age profile of the original Flourishing Index and some of its sub-components are U-shaped in age. However, the RFI rises linearly in age. We also introduce a new Not Flourishing Index (NFI) capturing illbeing. The NFI and each of its four sub-components fall markedly with age. These results are broadly replicated among those surveyed via a computer-assisted web-based interview (CAWI), except in the case of the original Flourishing Index which, like the RFI, now rises in age. However, the RFI, NFI and the original Flourishing Index age profiles have the opposite signs to the CAWI profiles when conducted via computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). We argue these differences by survey mode arise due to social desirability bias and non-random selection into CATI. Analyses of the European Social Survey (ESS) 2023–2024 and the CAWI-based Global Minds (GM) surveys 2020–2026 for the subset of countries appearing in the GFS support these CAWI findings in the GFS, albeit with alternative metrics, providing some external validity for our GFS findings.