Insights from the first-ever large-scale, multi-year effort to measure the distribution and determinants of wellbeing across the globe.
Dr. Tyler VanderWeele, director of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, and Dr. Byron Johnson, director of Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, lead the project. They join this episode of Stories of Impact podcast to discuss what the data reveal — and how individuals, institutions, and societies might rethink what it means to flourish.
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Flourishing includes contexts and communities, not just individual wellbeing.
“Wellbeing might be viewed as all aspects of a person's life are good as they pertain to that individual, whereas flourishing is all aspects of a person's life are good, including the context and communities and environments in which that person lives,” says VanderWeele. Flourishing is “multidimensional” and “an ideal. It's not something we ever perfectly attain in this life.” The community’s wellbeing is part of one’s own flourishing “partially because the community contributes to one's wellbeing…but also because of one's participation in the common good of the community.”
Five universally valued domains anchor the study.
The team focuses on happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships. “Each of those five domains…is nearly universally desired. And each is an end in and of itself. It's sought for its own sake,” VanderWeele explains. Across 22 countries, “almost everyone says all of these things are very important,” suggesting that while cultures differ in nuance, these domains are “universally valued.”
Men and women flourish similarly overall, but patterns vary by culture and domain.
“Men and women across these 22 countries are flourishing roughly similarly,” VanderWeele says, though “there is cross-cultural variation.” Men tend to report higher financial security and health, while women tend to report higher relationships and some character measures. Age patterns also appear: in many countries, flourishing increases with age, while in others it follows U-shaped curves or even declines.
Economic growth does not guarantee meaning and purpose.
Countries with higher GDP per capita report higher life evaluation and financial security. But “middle income countries tend to report higher on other aspects of flourishing…higher on meaning, higher on relational satisfaction, higher on pro-social character.” Most strikingly, “the relationship…between GDP per capita and meaning in life is negative.” VanderWeele cautions that pursuing economic growth as a primary goal “could come at a sacrifice to some of these other aspects of flourishing,” including relationships and pro-social orientation.
Community and religion consistently appear as sources of flourishing.
High-flourishing countries such as Indonesia, Israel, the Philippines, Mexico, and Poland tend to report “fairly high levels of religious participation” and strong community orientation. Johnson notes, “The importance of religion…is nearly universal. Even in highly secularized countries, we’re finding these effects.” Participation in religious community, VanderWeele adds, “contributes to happiness, to health, to meaning, to relationships.”
Young people are struggling, especially in the U.S.
“One of the other striking patterns in the United States…is that young people in the United States are not doing well,” VanderWeele says. The lower wellbeing among youth is “multifaceted,” and points to the need for societies to reflect on how they prioritize the wellbeing of future generations.
The flourishing framework resonates beyond academia.
Policymakers, schools, sports organizations, and businesses are already asking how to apply the framework. Johnson shares: “We've been having an ongoing dialogue with the San Antonio Spurs organization (of the NBA) because they love the flourishing framework. They want to recognize how they can help their players to flourish, but how can they help the community to flourish?” Johnson believes people respond because “it’s not so much about me, it’s about how’s my neighbor doing? It’s a communal thing. When people hear about the flourishing framework, it immediately makes sense to them. It doesn't matter where they fit on a political spectrum.”
🎧Listen to the episode to learn more about the big picture lessons and what the research team has begun dreaming of for the next phase of the study.
Learn about the TWCF-funded project: Global Flourishing Study: Piloting and Waves 1-5
Built on the award-winning video series of the same name, the “Stories of Impact” podcast explores cutting-edge research at the intersection of spirituality and science. With support from TWCF, performer, producer, and writer Tavia Gilbert and her team at Talkbox Productions craft each episode, adapting interviews conducted by journalist Richard Sergay into immersive audio stories.
