What makes cities happy? Factors contributing to life satisfaction in European cities

The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors of city life satisfaction across Europe. Data come from the recent fifth survey on quality of life in European cities and cover 83 cities located in the European Union, the European Free Trade Association countries, the United Kingdom, the We...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean urban and regional studies Vol. 30; no. 4; pp. 319 - 342
Main Authors Castelli, Chiara, d’Hombres, Beatrice, Dominicis, Laura de, Dijkstra, Lewis, Montalto, Valentina, Pontarollo, Nicola
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.10.2023
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Cities
Data quality
Free trade
Insecurity
Life satisfaction
Quality of life
Socioeconomic factors
Urbanism
subjective indicators
quality of urban life
Cities
Europe
regression analysis
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Summary:The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors of city life satisfaction across Europe. Data come from the recent fifth survey on quality of life in European cities and cover 83 cities located in the European Union, the European Free Trade Association countries, the United Kingdom, the Western Balkan Region and Turkey. In addition to running classical econometric analysis, we quantify the relative importance of the various determinants of overall satisfaction with life in cities, thus offering novel insights to shape evidence-based urban policies. The results highlight that two main policy-relevant areas contribute to the satisfaction with city life: the presence of amenities, on the one hand, and the inclusiveness and safety feeling, on the other hand. Socio-economic characteristics are generally not relevant, with the exception of economic insecurity. JEL Codes: R10, R58, I31
ISSN:0969-7764
1461-7145
DOI:10.1177/09697764231155335