China comes bottom of life satisfaction poll
By Jia Feishang |
October 14, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINESE seem pretty unhappy with their lot, according to a life satisfaction survey of 40 countries in which China came last.
The top three places in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report went to Denmark, Canada and Norway.
Eleven criteria for the evaluation included income, jobs, housing, health, education and the environment.
China scored 4.7 points in a 10-point system, while the highest score was 7.8 points.
However, in one finding at odds with the overall picture, when Chinese were asked whether they felt more positive than negative emotions in a typical day, nearly 85 percent answered "yes." In this ranking, China came eighth.
Gu Xiaoming, a sociologist from Fudan University, told Shanghai Daily yesterday that he suspected there was something wrong with the samples and statistical methods.
He was concerned that the sample did not fully represent China's population.
The report, released on Wednesday, did not reveal the size of the sample.
Peng Xizhe, a sociology professor, also from Fudan University, said though some Chinese do feel dissatisfied with their lives, he believed the ranking was out of proportion and that "Chinese shouldn't be that unhappy."
He believed different interpretations of the questions would have affected results.
But Gu admitted a growing number of people are unhappy, even though quality of life has improved over the years.
"Fast economic development has led to high expectations, while sluggish salary increases and high housing prices have created dissatisfaction," Gu said.
The OECD says the report is an attempt to devise new measures for assessing wellbeing beyond GDP.
The top three places in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report went to Denmark, Canada and Norway.
Eleven criteria for the evaluation included income, jobs, housing, health, education and the environment.
China scored 4.7 points in a 10-point system, while the highest score was 7.8 points.
However, in one finding at odds with the overall picture, when Chinese were asked whether they felt more positive than negative emotions in a typical day, nearly 85 percent answered "yes." In this ranking, China came eighth.
Gu Xiaoming, a sociologist from Fudan University, told Shanghai Daily yesterday that he suspected there was something wrong with the samples and statistical methods.
He was concerned that the sample did not fully represent China's population.
The report, released on Wednesday, did not reveal the size of the sample.
Peng Xizhe, a sociology professor, also from Fudan University, said though some Chinese do feel dissatisfied with their lives, he believed the ranking was out of proportion and that "Chinese shouldn't be that unhappy."
He believed different interpretations of the questions would have affected results.
But Gu admitted a growing number of people are unhappy, even though quality of life has improved over the years.
"Fast economic development has led to high expectations, while sluggish salary increases and high housing prices have created dissatisfaction," Gu said.
The OECD says the report is an attempt to devise new measures for assessing wellbeing beyond GDP.
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