NMICS 2010 Report - Central Bureau of Statistics

XIV. Subjective well-beingIt is well known that the subjective perceptions of individuals of their income, health, livingenvironment and such like play a significant role in their lives and can impact their perception ofwell-being, irrespective of objective conditions such as actual income and physical health status.A set of questions were asked of young women aged 15–24 years to assess how satisfied they werewith different areas of their life such as family, friendships, school, job, living environment andincome. Life satisfaction is a measure of an individual’s perceived level of well-being. Understandingyoung women’s satisfaction in different areas of their lives can help in gaining a comprehensivepicture of young people’s life situations.A distinction can be made between life satisfaction and happiness. In addition to the set of questionson life satisfaction, respondents were also asked a few simple questions about happiness and theirperceptions of a better life. Happiness is a fleeting emotion that can be affected by numerous thingsincluding day-to-day factors such as the weather or a recent death in the family. It is possible for anindividual to be satisfied with her family life, friends, job, income and other aspects of her life, butstill be unhappy.To assist respondents in answering the set of questions on happiness and life satisfaction they wereshown a card with smiling faces (and not smiling faces) that corresponded to the responsecategories (see the Questionnaires in Appendix F).The indicators related to subjective well-being are as follows.Life satisfaction—the proportion of women aged 15–24 years who are very or somewhatsatisfied with family life, friendships, school, current job, living environment, self, life overall andcurrent incomeHappiness—the proportion of women aged 15–24 years who are very or somewhat happyPerception of a better life—the proportion of women aged 15–24 years whose life improvedduring the last one year, and who expect that their lives will be better after one yearTable SW.1 shows the proportion of young women aged 15–24 in the MFWR who are very orsomewhat satisfied in selected domains. Of the various domains, 91 percent of young women werevery or somewhat satisfied with their family life and friendships, 83 percent with their current job,81 percent with school, self and life overall, 80 percent with their income, and 77 percent with theirliving environment.While there was little variation by background characteristic for family life and friendships, the otherdomains showed greater deviations. Generally, the greatest variation can be seen by subregion andhousehold wealth quintile. By subregion, satisfaction with current job ranged from 71 percent in theFar Western Hills to 93 percent in the Far Western Terai; satisfaction with living environment rangedfrom 61 percent in the Mid-Western Mountains to 84 percent in the Far Western Terai; satisfactionwith self ranged from 66 percent in the Far Western Hills to 92 percent in the Mid-Western Hills;satisfaction with life overall ranged from 64 percent in the Mid-Western Mountains to 90 percent inthe Mid-Western Hills; and satisfaction with current income ranged from 56 percent in the FarWestern Hills to 86 percent in the Mid-Western Hills. Overall, young women in the Mid-Western Hillsand Far Western Terai were most satisfied and young women in the Far Western Hills and Mid-Western Mountains were least satisfied. Satisfaction tended to increase as household wealthincreased, with about a 15-percentage-point range from the poorest quintile to the richest quintilefor satisfaction with current job, living environment, self, life overall and current income. In addition,only 42 percent of young women with no education were satisfied with school compared to 88percent of young women with at least secondary education.190