Continued Table 1
Income quartiles
|
Lowest quartile |
0.25 |
0.43 |
0 |
1 |
-0.10 |
|
Lower-middle quartile |
0.25 |
0.43 |
0 |
1 |
-0.04 |
|
Upper-middle quartile |
0.27 |
0.44 |
0 |
1 |
0.03 |
|
Highest quartile |
0.23 |
0.42 |
0 |
1 |
0.12 |
|
Community size: | |||||
|
< 5000 inhabitants |
0.36 |
0.48 |
0 |
1 |
0.05 |
|
5001-20000 |
0.17 |
0.37 |
0 |
1 |
-0.02 |
|
20001-100000 |
0.18 |
0.38 |
0 |
1 |
0.01 |
|
> 100000 inhabitants |
0.29 |
0.46 |
0 |
1 |
-0.04 |
|
Church attendance: | |||||
|
Never |
0.16 |
0.36 |
0 |
1 |
0.10 |
|
Seldom |
0.25 |
0.44 |
0 |
1 |
-0.03 |
|
Several times a year |
0.25 |
0.43 |
0 |
1 |
-0.05 |
|
Once a month |
0.14 |
0.35 |
0 |
1 |
-0.02 |
|
Every week |
0.20 |
0.40 |
0 |
1 |
0.01 |
|
Religion: | |||||
|
Catholic |
0.47 |
0.50 |
0 |
1 |
0.10 |
|
Protestant |
0.04 |
0.20 |
0 |
1 |
0.02 |
|
Orthodox |
0.25 |
0.44 |
0 |
1 |
-0.15 |
|
Other |
0.03 |
0.18 |
0 |
1 |
-0.04 |
|
Non believer |
0.18 |
0.38 |
0 |
1 |
0.05 |
|
No answer |
0.02 |
0.13 |
0 |
1 |
0.01 |
In a first step of the analysis, we compare national happiness levels in Eastern Europe. For
each country in our sample these are computed as the arithmetic mean of the dependent
variable. An important question is whether the resulting values have any meaning, within and
outside the present data base. Although we have a number of studies on Western countries,
and thus can draw comparisons, it is always difficult to precisely match data from different
years and surveys. In particular, the wording of the question and the scale used for the
answers may affect the results. To foster a meaningful comparison with Western Europe, the
New Democracy Barometer also contains happiness data for Austria. Table 2 presents