Last year, 15 % of population in Latvia had high overall life satisfaction rating

Results of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey conducted by the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (CSB) in 2018 show that 15.3 % of Latvia population aged 16 and over gave high rating to the overall life satisfaction, 58.3 % gave average rating and 26.4 % gave low rating. The average rating given by the population constituted 6.7 points out of 10.

The highest assessment ratings were given by young people, while the lowest by elderly population aged over 75.

Young people aged 16–24 assessed their overall life satisfaction on average with 7.5 points, while older people with 6.1 points. Each fourth young person (25.3 %) gave the highest rating (9 or 10 points), while only each tenth (9.9 %) senior had such a high assessment. An exception in the lower assessment may be observed only in the age group 65–74 which is the age after retirement. The phenomenon is depicted by the slight rise to 13.1 % in the age group, compared to the 11.1 % at retirement age and 9.9 % among population aged over 75. The most notable overall life satisfaction rating downturn may be observed between the age groups 34–44 and 45–54.

The overall life satisfaction is influenced also by the state of health. Population assessing their health as very good tend to evaluate their overall life higher (8.3 points), compared to those assessing their health as very bad (4.4 points).

Unemployed persons and those with lower income have lower overall live satisfaction

Unemployed persons assessed overall life satisfaction with 5.5 points, which is 1.5 points lower rating than that given by employed persons (7 points).

Income also have influence on the overall life satisfaction – population living in the poorest households (belonging to the first quintile group) gave lower assessment (5.9 points), while as the income level grows, also overall life satisfaction is higher – 7.5 points in the richest households (fifth quintile group).

Overall life satisfaction also depends on the educational attainment. People having higher education assess overall life quality higher than those acquired basic education – 7.5 and 6.7 points, respectively.

Higher overall life satisfaction observed in households with children

Life satisfaction in households with children aged under 18 is assessed with a higher rating (on average 7.3 points), compared to the rating in households without children (6.5 points). The highest ratings were observed in households consisting of couples with three and more children – one third (33.4 %) gave the highest assessment. The lowest assessment may be observed among single elderly people aged 65 and over (6.2 points), moreover 37.4 % of them gave very low rating.

Data source: EU-SILC survey conducted by the CSB in 2018 that included questions on population well-being. The assessment was given in a scale from 0 (not at all satisfied) to 10 (completely satisfied). The survey covered 6 thousand households and 11 thousand respondents aged 16 and over.

More information on the survey results is available in the CSB database section Well-being and Life Satisfaction (EU-SILC ad-hoc modules) and publication Income and Living Conditions in Latvia 2018.

Methodological explanations

Household – several persons living in one dwelling and sharing expenditure or one person having separate housekeeping. CSB data show that, in 2018 in one household on average there were 2.3 persons.

Quintile group – one fifth (20 %) of the number of surveyed households grouped in increasing sequence according to the disposable income per one household member. The bottom (first) quintile group includes one fifth of the households with the lowest income, while the top (fifth) quintile group comprises one fifth of the households with the highest income level.