Social integration and subjective wellbeing

ABSTRACT

Using data from the UK Community Life Survey, we examine the relationship between social integration and subjective wellbeing. We measure social integration along various dimensions, including frequency of interaction with one’s neighbors, perceived strength of belonging to one’s immediate neighborhood and country, length of residence in a neighborhood, and trust in neighbors. Overall, we find that social integration is associated with higher levels of subjective wellbeing. Specifically, our results suggest that an increase in the frequency of interaction with one’s neighbors is associated with an increase in subjective wellbeing. Similarly, an increase in respondent’s perceived strength of belonging to their immediate neighborhood (and country) is associated with an increase in subjective wellbeing. We further discover that an increase in the length of residence in a neighborhood is associated with an increase in subjective wellbeing, and this is also the case for an increase in the level of trust in one’s neighbour.

KEYWORDS:

• Social integration
• social interactions
• trust
• wellbeing

JEL CLASSFICATION:

• I31

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ We use the terms ‘social integration’ and ‘inclusion’ interchangeably as they are overlapping concepts. Social integration relates to the formation of safe, stable and equitable societies through the removal of social disintegration and social exclusion. Social inclusion is connected to positive interventions designed to change the circumstances and behaviours that generate social exclusion. It is often associated with improving conditions for people disadvantaged due to an aspect of their identity (such as gender or ethnicity). Thus, both social integration and social inclusion are associated with a need to reduce the degree of fragmentation in our communities and societies.

² For respondents in London, which is urban, we use the average ethnic fractionalization for the rural areas closest to London.