To Minsk (Минск) and Beyond!

The Impact of other Individual Factors on Belarusian Life Satisfaction

I have already posted on differences in self-reported Belarusian life satisfaction levels based on profession/job type, education level, and age.  Today I wanted to look at the role of other individual factors on life satisfaction in Belarus (Note: The following tables of descriptive statistics represent those factors that are available in the World Values Survey data for Belarus).

Table 1 below (followed by Figure 1: Belarus Province Map), shows comparative life satisfaction of Belarusians by geographical location (province).  Those living in Gomel and Vitebsk provinces (4.7 and 4.6 respectively) had the highest mean life satisfaction scores in 1996, while Mogilev  (4.0) had the lowest.  In 2000, residents of Vitebsk province (5.2) had the highest life satisfaction in 2000, followed by Minsk, Gomel, and Mogilev (each with 4.9), while residents of Grodno province (4.2) had the lowest mean life satisfaction score. 

Table 1:

Figure 1: Belarus Province Map

While Belarus is not a very ethnically diverse nation, Table 2 shows that ethnic Belorussians experience the lowest self-reported life satisfaction, save those of Polish ethnicity.  

Table 2: 

Table 3 shows that female Belarusians have slightly lower overall life satisfaction than their male counterparts, while both genders saw significant declines from 1990 to 1996, with a modest rebound and increase in life satisfaction from 1996 to 2000.

Table 3: 

Table 4 shows an overall decline in life satisfaction from 1990 to 1996, and then an increase (though still significantly lower than 1990 levels) from 1996 to 2000, with this pattern applying to each of the different marital status categories.  The highest life satisfaction is found among married and single/never married individuals, with divorced and separated individuals experiencing the lowest life satisfaction level. 

Table 4:

Table 5 shows that since 1990 (when there was no significant difference between living or not living with parents on life satisfaction), Belarusians that live with their parents experience overall greater life satisfaction than those who do not, with the gap increasing from 1996 to 2000.

 Table 5:

Table 6 shows an almost oddly consistent level of life satisfaction regardless of the number of adults living in the home.  There is a large jump from a single adult household, to those homes with more than one adult.  Oddly, homes with 6+ adults experience another significant boost in self-reported life satisfaction.

 Table 6:

Table 7 shows a very clear pattern of declining life satisfaction with each additional child in the home, with overall self-reported satisfaction levels being higher in 2000 than they were in 1996.

Table 7:

Table 8 shows comparative life satisfaction by how often the respondent attends religious service, over the three waves of the WVS data.  Interestingly, more religious Belarusians (attending a church service once a week or more) had the highest life satisfaction levels in 1990, but then had the lowest levels by 1996 and continuing to 2000. 

Table 8: 

Table 9 clearly shows that social class has a strong impact on the perceived life satisfaction of Belarusians.

Table 9:  

Table 10 shows a significant positive impact of self-reported income level on self-reported job satisfaction for Belarusians, with impact increasing with each of the three waves of the data.

Table 10:

 

Table 11 shows comparative life satisfaction by Belarusian employment status and study year.  Students experience the highest levels of life satisfaction across all three waves of the data.

Table 11:

 

Table 12 shows a very clear and significant increase in self-reported mean life satisfaction scores for those Belarusian workers who have some level of supervisory responsibilities on the job. 

Table 12: 

 

Table 13 shows comparative mean life satisfaction scores by chief wage earner profession/job type, with little consistent impact of chief wage earner profession/job type on one's perceived life satisfaction.

Table 13:  

  

So there are some descriptive statistics on life satisfaction in Belarus based on a variety of individual factors/characteristics.  Future regression models should take each of these individual factors into account.