Life according to Swedes

Education, relationships, valid goals and involvement all add to our sense of meaning in life.  

• 

  “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be,” Abraham Lincoln is quoted as having said. Swedes are pretty happy: 9 in 10 experience life as meaningful.

• 9 in 10 Swedes think life is meaningful. But how much happiness one feels has to do with gender, age, and education. Being in a love relationship also adds to it. According to a research anthology called “Mittfåra och marginal” (mainstream and marginal), the majority of the Swedish people think their life is pretty or completely meaningful.
  All of 88% think their life is important and 78% think they’re working towards important goals. Women, those with higher education, younger people and those who are in a love relationship, experience their lives as more meaningful than others. Those with a higher education and higher incomes also experience more happiness in their lives than workers. Professor in Practical Philosophy Bengt Brülde believes the difference in experienced meaningfulness may have to do with employment.

• 

  Sweden is a clean and environmentally friendly country. Photo: Bo Zaunders

• “I believe the higher sense of meaningfulness has to do with the fact that younger or highly educated people have more sorts of projects in their lives, for instance at work and at home. These projects give a sense of meaning and make you feel like you’re participating in a broader context,” Brülde says in a press release.