Abstract
I investigate the relationship between the popular Mercer city ranking (livability) and survey data (satisfactions). Livability aims to capture objective quality of life such as infrastructure. Survey items capture subjective quality of life such as satisfaction with city. The relationship between objective measures of quality of life and subjective measures is weak (correlation of about 0. 4). Trust is highly correlated with both, objective livability (0. 8) and subjective satisfaction with city (0. 65). I postulate to pay more attention to subjective indicators of quality of life. After all, what matters is what we perceive, not what is out there.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 433-451 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Social Indicators Research |
| Volume | 110 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2013 |
| Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Sociology and Political Science
- Social Sciences(all)
Keywords
- Best places to live
- Cities
- City rankings
- Livability
- Mercer
- Perceptions survey
- Satisfaction
- Urban audit
- Urban quality of life
- Well-being