Factors important in human flourishing

Social science research has identified seven major factors that determine the happiness of an individual (Richard Layard, Happiness (New York: Penguin, 2005), p. 63):

• Family relationships
• Financial situation
• Work
• Community and friends
• Health
• Personal freedom
• Personal values

Conversely, six factors explain 80% of the variation in happiness between people and across cultural/national boundaries (Richard Layard, Happiness (New York: Penguin, 2005), p. 71):

• Divorce rate
• Unemployment rate
• Level of trust
• Membership in non-religious organizations
• Quality of government
• Fraction believing in God

Those lists provide a practical agenda for promoting human flourishing useful to individuals engaging in self-examination to improve their life and to organizations wanting to promote human well-being. Although a person may little control over the quality of the government under which he/she lives or the prevailing level of unemployment, well over half of the items are ones over which most individuals can exercise considerable control.