Comparative analysis of subjective well-being of Latvia's inhabitants in the context of economic development of European countries

Daugavpils University, Latvia

Abstract

In the world, during the past 10 years, when evaluating development of a particular area, there has been a tendency of taking into consideration subjective evaluation and attitude to the living conditions of inhabitants living in this area. More often these indicators are the general life satisfaction and feeling of happiness. Analysing Latvia's place in these ratings, it is possible to conclude that inhabitants of Latvia are very pessimistic in assessing their lives in this country. As surveys indicate, the economic factors have an important influence on people's subjective satisfaction. The problem of the research is that during the last two years, there has been a tendency to improvement of the economic indicators in all three Baltic States, but when comparing the closest neighbours, the Latvian inhabitants' subjective satisfaction with life is decreasing, but in Lithuania and Estonia it is increasing together with improvement of the economic situation. In this article the author suggests her own vision of the situation in relation to the arrangement of countries according to subjective indicators analysing the influence of objective socio-economic factors on subjective opinions about living conditions of the inhabitants living in Latvia and neighbouring countries.