Happiness and subjective health status among older adults in Southern Europe and Scandinavia

Abstract

European societies are facing social challenges arising from rapid demographic aging process. The emergence of a “graying society” has sparked the debate around the promotion of the living conditions of the elderly. In this paper we analyze the level of happiness of the elderly as an important dimension of quality of life, correlating with the subjective assessment of health status in southern Europe (Portugal, Spain and Greece) and in Scandinavia (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden). We seek to understand if there are different ways of experiencing old age in these societies, with a setting of distinct models of social protection.