An Urban-Rural Happiness Gradient

Abstract

Data collected by the General Social Survey from 1972 to 2008 are used to confirm that in the United States, in contrast to many other parts of the world, there is a gradient of subjective well-being (happiness) that rises from its lowest levels in large central cities to its highest levels on the small-town/rural periphery. This gradient, which is present after controlling for many of the characteristics that affect individuals' happiness, is driven by several cleavages: between the size, density, and heterogeneity of major central cities and the smaller-scale, lower densities and relative homogeneity of areas beyond their borders, and between the black and white Americans differentially present in those locations.

Keywords:

• happiness
• life satisfaction
• general social survey
• urban gradients
• Wirth's model
• black-white cleavage