View in Vital Signs- Vibrant Human Quality of Life
- Sense of Place
- Indicator
- Overall life satisfaction
- Vital Sign Indicator
- Index Value (index value)
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No targets are currently set for this indicator.
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Kelly Biedenweg
- Contributing Partners
- Last Updated
- 08/04/2025 19:13:19
This indicator measures the level of life satisfaction that residents in Puget Sound perceive. The overall life satisfaction indicator will enable better understanding of how trends in environmental health or recovery efforts are affecting overall human wellbeing.
Mean level of Life Satisfaction on a seven-point scale (where 1 is dissatisfied and 7 is satisfied).
Life Satisfaction is one of the most common metrics of subjective human wellbeing. This assessment of one’s overall satisfaction with life has been tested internationally, and primary predictors tend to be based on the quality of social relationships and work satisfaction, among others. Because of its general nature, this indicator will be used as a baseline from which to assess changes in status for most of the other human wellbeing Vital Sign indicators that are more specific to environmental interactions. The overall life satisfaction indicator will also enable better understanding of how trends in environmental health or recovery efforts are affecting overall human wellbeing.
- We measure Life Satisfaction using standardized questions that ask people how satisfied they are with their life.
- The average Puget Sound respondent agrees that they are satisfied with their life, with an average 6.05 on a seven-point scale. This is higher than other regions of the United States, according to the World Happiness Report.
- While we used two new metrics in 2024, there are no significant differences in the status of overall life satisfaction since 2018. See "causes for change" for data from 2018, 2020, and 2022.
- Monitoring Program
- Data Source
Oregon State University Human Dimensions Lab
Data are collected every two years via paper survey and online response option to a random sample of Puget Sound households. The population is a clustered random sample of Puget Sound residents across 12 counties, with an initial sample of 9,000. Due to undeliverable addresses, the total sample reached is always less than 9,000.
- In 2024, the response rate was 23% for a total of 1,968 responses.
- In 2022, the response rate was 20.8%, with a total of 1,271 responses.
- In 2020, the response rate was 25% for a total of 1,843 respondents.
- In 2018, the first iteration of the survey, the response rate was 28% for a total of 2,323 individual responses.
From 2018-2022, the life satisfaction indicator is based on a single question in the survey that asks respondents rate their level of overall life satisfaction on a scale of 1-5 (satisfied to dissatisfied). In 2024, we piloted two new questions on 7-point scales to explore potential variation.
For more information on the survey, see Appendix A. Detailed Methodology and Appendix B. 2024 Survey Instrument in the 2024 Summary Report.
- Critical Definitions
Life satisfaction is an individual's subjective assessment of the quality of their life as a whole, with the prompt that they consider the last year in their response.
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We ask these questions as an overall psychological metric of wellbeing to which we can correlate our other wellbeing indicators over time to identify trends. In general, the various interactions with nature as measured by the Quality of Life and Health Human Population Vital Signs have positive relationships to our indicators, yet those indicators explain a low amount of the variability in Life Satisfaction responses (between 1-8%). Demographics are also generally poor predictors of Life Satisfaction.
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While we used two new metrics in 2024, there are no significant differences in this indicator's status since 2018 (see below for data from 2018-2022). This lack of change is expected, as we don’t anticipate measuring large changes in human attitudes until several years of monitoring and large ecological or social influencing events.
Bordas, A., A. Kuberski, K. Harrington, and K. Biedenweg. 2025. Human Wellbeing Vital Signs Survey 2024 Summary: A report on subjective human wellbeing indicators. prepared for the Puget Sound Partnership
Harrington, K., B. Leach, Z. Antenucci, and K. Biedenweg. 2023. Human Wellbeing Vital Signs Survey 2022 Summary: A report on subjective human wellbeing indicators prepared for the Puget Sound Partnership.
Justiniano, I., C. Avendano, C. Lozano and K. Biedenweg. 2021. Vital Signs Latinx Survey. Report to Puget Sound Partnership.
Fleming, W., H. Kehoe-Thommen, B. Katz, J. Hart and K. Biedenweg. 2021. Vital Signs Survey Summary 2020: A report on subjective human wellbeing. Report to the Puget Sound Partnership.
Fleming, W. and K. Biedenweg. 2019. Visualizing Human Wellbeing in the Puget Sound (Vital Signs Survey Summary 2018). Report to the Puget Sound Partnership.
Human Wellbeing Vital Signs Interactive Web-interface (2018, 2020)
The Puget Sound Partnership believes in the transparency and accessibility of the data used to address puget sound indicators. These data are provided by contributing partners to the Partnership and are made publicly available through the Puget Sound Info site. These data are available on an "as is" basis and the Partnership is not responsible for any errors, omissions, or inaccuracies. Please acknowledge the monitoring program and data source when using these data and obtain permission from the Vital Sign Indicator Reporter to use these data in a publication.
- HWB Survey data and codebooks
- Uploaded On
- 07/29/2025
- File Type
- Excel (XLSX)
- Description
- Raw data and codebooks for all iterations of the survey: 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024
- Reporting Instructions
No Subcategories for this Puget Sound Indicator.