1. Exploring geographies of happiness in Britain and the implications for public policy
Dimitris Ballas
Social And Spatial Inequalities (SASI) Department of Geography
University of Sheffield

2. Outline What is happiness?
Happiness, inequality and social comparisons
Policy-relevant research questions
Geographies of happiness and well-being in Britain
Happy People or Happy Places?
Data sources and concluding comments

3. What is happiness? Greece, circa 500 BC Socrates, Plato 
Aristotle ( BC)
Nichomachean Ethics (350 BC)
England, 18th century
Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832), the principle of Utility
John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873) – Utilitarianism

4. What is happiness? Can it be measured?
Human perceptions of happiness vary and depend on a wide range of factors
What is the good life for man? The question of what is a full and rich life cannot be answered for an individual in abstraction from the society in which he lives
(Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics)
Can happiness be measured?
Happiness is subjective and no objective theory about the ordinary concept of happiness has the slightest plausibility
(Sumner, 1996)

5. What is happiness? Can it be measured?
A person who has had a life of misfortune, with very little opportunities, and rather little hope, may be more easily reconciled to deprivations than others reared in more fortunate and affluent circumstances. The metric of happiness may, therefore, distort the extent of deprivation in a specific and biased way.
(Sen, 1987: 45, my emphasis)
Oswald and Clark ( ): statistical regression models of happiness measuring the impact of different life events upon human well being

6. Can happiness be measured?
Positive and negative feelings are inversely correlated
Happiness can be thought of as a single variable (Layard, 2005; Frey and Stutzer, 2002)

7. Source: The British Household Panel Survey, 1991
General happiness Self Completion (4)
Question Number and Text KS1L :
Have you recently....been feeling reasonably happy, all things considered?
Value Label %
More so than usual 1
13.2
Same as usual 2
72.8
Less so than usual 3
11.8
Much less than usual 4
2.2
Source: The British Household Panel Survey, 1991

8. General Health Questionnaire (1) Have you recently:
Been able to concentrate on whatever you are doing?
Lost much sleep over worry?
Felt that you are playing a useful part in things?
Felt capable of making decisions about things?
Felt constantly under strain?
Felt you could not overcome your difficulties?

9. General Health Questionnaire (2) Have you recently:
Been able to enjoy your normal day-to-day activities?
Been able to face up to your problems?
Been feeling unhappy or depressed?
Been losing confidence in yourself?
Been thinking of yourself as a worthless person?
Been feeling reasonable happy all things considered?

10. Happiness in different activities (after Layard, 2005)

11. Happiness in different activities (after Layard, 2005)

12. Social Justice, inequality and happiness
“A house may be large or small; as long as the surrounding houses are equally small it satisfies all social demands for a dwelling. But if a palace arises beside the little house, the little house shrinks to a hovel… [and]… the dweller will feel more and more uncomfortable, dissatisfied and cramped within its four walls.”
(Marx, 1847)

13. Happiness and inequality
“When we are at home, most of us like to live in roughly the same style as our friends or neighbours, or better. If our friends start giving more elaborate parties, we feel we should do the same. Likewise if they have bigger houses or bigger cars.”
(Layard, 2005: 43)

14. Happiness and inequality
“… similarly at work, I compare my income with what my colleagues get, in so far as I hear about it. If they get a raise above inflation and I get inflation only, I get mad.”
(Layard, 2005: 44)

15. Happiness and inequality
“Napoleon envied Caesar, Ceasar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed. You cannot, therefore, get away from envy by means of success alone, for there will always be in history or legend some person even more successful than you are.”
(Bertrand Russell, 1930: pp , cf Frey and Stutzer, 2002: 86)

16. Happiness, geography and inequalities
“… the broad impression is that social class stratification establishes itself primarily as a national social structure, though there are perhaps also some more local civic hierarchies – for instance within cities and US states. But it should go without saying that classes are defined in relation to each other: one is higher because the other is lower, and vice versa. The lower class identity of people in a poor neighbourhood is inevitably defined in relation to a hierarchy which includes a knowledge of the existence of superior classes who may live in other areas some distance away.”
(Wilkinson and Pickett, 2006: 7, my emphasis)

17. Links between income inequality and well-being (Wilkinson and Picket, 2006)
The proportion of analyses classified as wholly supportive falls from 83% (of all wholly supportive or unsupportive) in the international studies to 73% in the large sub-national areas, to 45% among the smallest spatial units.
The spatial scale at which people make their social comparisons is more likely to be the nation state (arguably reflecting socio-economic position) than it is to locality (reflecting position within neighbourhood).

18. Happiness and inequality
“…while economic goods and services are obviously important, many people believe that inequality also affects human welfare in ways that are independent of any given household’s purchasing power. Even if my family income remains constant, the distribution of income in my neighbourhood or my nation may influence my children’s educational opportunities, my life expectancy, my chance of being robbed, the probability I will vote and perhaps even my overall happiness.”
(Jencks, 2002: 57)

19. Source: The British Household Panel Survey, 2001
Geographies of happiness in Britain
Region / Metropolitan Area * GHQ: general happiness Crosstabulation
% within Region / Metropolitan Area
4.5%
4.3%
14.4%
66.7%
7.7%
2.4%
100.0%
2.8%
5.7%
10.6%
68.6%
10.2%
2.1%
2.2%
5.0%
11.9%
70.2%
9.1%
1.6%
1.7%
3.5%
11.3%
74.1%
8.0%
1.4%
1.3%
10.0%
77.4%
8.5%
.8%
10.9%
76.0%
8.3%
6.6%
4.6%
11.5%
66.0%
9.9%
10.7%
73.7%
2.0%
1.0%
2.6%
11.1%
75.2%
.4%
4.7%
75.5%
8.6%
.9%
4.0%
14.5%
70.7%
8.1%
71.0%
13.3%
2.7%
73.9%
1.2%
5.5%
10.1%
76.5%
3.8%
14.0%
72.7%
6.8%
2.3%
1.8%
10.8%
72.3%
1.5%
3.9%
8.8%
70.9%
12.6%
74.0%
3.4%
72.2%
9.2%
Inner London
Outer London
R. of South East
South West
East Anglia
East Midlands
West Midlands
Conurbation
R. of West Midlands
Greater Manchester
Merseyside
R. of North West
South Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
R. of Yorks & Humberside
Tyne & Wear
R. of North
Wales
Scotland
Region /
Metropolitan
Area
Total
Missing
or wild
Proxy
respondent
More than
usual
Same as
Less so
Much less
GHQ: general happiness
Source: The British Household Panel Survey, 2001

20. Spatial distribution of “unhappiness”

21. Geographies of unhappiness in England and Wales
REGION BY SOCIAL CLASS
CLASS 1
CLASS 2
CLASS 3
CLASSES 1 - 3 N
Rest of Yorks & Humberside
3.3
7.1
7.0
5.9
328
Tyne & Wear
10.0
3.4
7.2
264
East Midlands
5.3
8.1
11.2
7.9
782
Inner London
10.3
5.2
8.8
418
Rest of North West
4.9
9.2
12.3
8.5
454
South West
11.7
6.7
8.9
8.7
930
Greater Manchester
14.5
8.2
4.8
9.3
416
West Midlands Conurbation
10.5
453
East Anglia
10.7
6.5
13.3
9.5
390
Merseyside
17.6
0.0
233
West Yorkshire
7.7
9.6
10.2
364
Rest of South East
10.8
1,875
Outer London
6.9
668
Rest of West Midlands
11.6
14.9
11.5
506
Rest of North
19.7
10.4
12.4
400
Wales
11.1
12.9
15.3
13.0
533
South Yorkshire
24.2
15.4
293
Great Britain
9.7
9.8
10,264

22. Policy-relevant research questions:
What are the factors and life events that influence different types of individuals’ happiness and how might these affect the overall structure and cohesion of society?
Is the source of happiness or unhappiness purely personal or do issues underlying inequalities in the distribution of income, wealth, skills, capability and power matter?
If comparisons regarding income and wealth inequalities are important, what is the spatial scale at which people make their social comparisons?
Happy People or Happy Places?

23. Happy People or Happy Places?
World  Nation  Region  City Electoral Wards  Output Area Neighbourhood  Household  Individual
Methods:
Regression models
Multi-level modelling approaches
Microsimulation and Spatial Microsimulation

24. Secondary data sources
1991 & 2001 Census of UK population:
100% coverage
fine geographical detail
small area data available only in tabular format with limited variables to preserve confidentiality
British Household Panel Survey:
sample size: more than 5,000 households
annual surveys since 1991
individual data
more variables than census
coarse geography
household attrition

25. Life-event data analysis (Ballas and Dorling, 2006)
BHPS: What has happened to you (or your family) which has stood out as important?
145,408 major life events recorded between

26. Source: Barclays, 2005

27. Source: Barclays, 2005

28. Geographical Inequalities of Income and Wealth: what people want and need
“By necessities, I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life, but whatever the customs of the country renders it indecent for creditable people, even of the lower order, to be without. A creditable day labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt.”
(Smith, 1759: 383)

31. (Source: SOC project, Pritchard, Thomas, Dorling and Ballas, 2005
City Name
Top Price 2003
Lowest Price 2003
Price ratio 1993
Price ratio 2003
London
383701
218002
1.27
1.76
Manchester
201662
84841
1.48
2.38
Preston
127636
64346
1.33
1.98
Reading
253044
178901
1.4
1.41
Bolton
130063
58019
1.47
2.24
Blackburn
77771
59470
1.16
1.31
Birmingham
169837
93938
1.46
1.81
Middlesbrough
102190
51773
1.36
1.97
Nottingham
160436
92962
1.73
Leicester
152469
120674
1.23
1.26
Bristol
238387
117133
2.04
Leeds
175109
71787
1.35
2.44

32. (Source: SOC project, Pritchard, Thomas, Dorling and Ballas, 2005)
York
161170
144361
1.25
1.12
Brighton
230675
207005
1.09
1.11
Grimsby
96610
59557
1.21
1.62
Hastings
184008
149320
1.24
1.23
Milton Keynes
179024
132623
0.97
1.35
Wakefield
111450
99993
1.07
Stoke
95998
60037
1.04
1.6
Cambridge
263329
229039
0.96
1.15
Mansfield
100941
91809
1.16
1.1
Swindon
159409
153849
1.05
Huddersfield
98193
91681
Barnsley
85092
76022
0.99
Burnley
56427
55242
0.71
1.02
Telford
115172
108120
0.91

33. Building geographical simulation models of happiness for “what-if” public policy analysis
Source:

34. Concluding comments Happiness and Major Life events
Happiness and value systems
Adding a geographical dimension to explore the geography of well-being, based on the estimated database through the 1990s and early 2000s
Maps of well-being can be produced for different types of people (i.e. by age, SEG etc)
Income and wealth inequalities and happiness (what does money buy you in different places?)
A strong case is being made that there is a relationship between geographical and socio-economic inequalities and well-being that needs to be examined in more detail
Increasing polarisation and widening of inequalities in Britain – local socio-economic polarisation