As part of the annual Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC), respondents aged 16 years and older are asked to rate their satisfaction level with their overall life and their satisfaction level with the financial situation of their households on a scale from 0 (‘Not at all satisfied’) to 10 (‘Completely satisfied’). Well-being questions in the SILC are collected by direct interview.
The mean score for each satisfaction level indicator was calculated by adding individual scores and dividing the total by the number of individuals. In this publication, the responses for the satisfaction level indicators are also grouped as Low (0-5), Medium (6-8) and High (9-10).
As part of the annual SILC respondents are asked how often they felt ‘downhearted or depressed’ or 'lonely' in the four weeks prior to their interview date. The responses are given on a 5-point scale, with answers ranging from ‘None of the time’ to ‘All of the time’.
As a result of only taking direct responses to the well-being indicator questions, the personal weights calculated as part of the core SILC survey had to be adjusted to account for attribute differences. This was achieved by adjusting the personal weights to account for non-direct response to the well-being questions. These adjusted weights were then calibrated to the estimated totals obtained by the core SILC survey to ensure consistency with the core SILC results. Due to high proxy interview rates for students and younger adults (aged 16 to 24 years) the achieved sample size of direct interviews for these groups negatively impacts on the robustness of their well-being estimates. Therefore, caution should be advised when interpreting well-being rates for these groups.
Well-being figures published on the Eurostat website may differ from results in this publication as there is no requirement to create separate weights for well-being indicators that are collected as part of the annual core SILC.
Further information on the SILC’s methodology is available in the Background Notes section.
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