Projecting future happy life expectancy by level of education for countries around the world

Wolfgang Lutz, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Erich Striessnig, Wittgenstein Centre (IIASA, VID/ÖAW, WU)

Based on the World Value Survey we present cross-country comparisons of “Happy Life Expectancy (HLE)” by an improved demographic life table method. This indicator gives the average number of years a person lives in a state of happiness. It also has the advantage that it can be calculated for different sub-populations independently. Here we will apply it to the populations as stratified by the level of educational attainment, which allows us to study HLE differentials by level of education which combines the survival advantage of more educated people with their typical higher level of happiness. Moreover, recently methods have been developed to project over several decades the populations of all countries in the world by age, sex and level of education while considering differential fertility and mortality. This allows us to calculate different scenarios about HLE.