ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is whether or not we are able to measure happiness and the pitfalls and dilemmas related to this type of measurement for the understanding of the results, including how and whether causes can be inferred from reading the data. The chapter also provides empirical examples of happiness, with mainly a US and European focus, for example, on income and happiness, the development in happiness in this millennium as far as possible, happiness and the subjective evaluation of the individual’s health, happiness and trust, happiness and employment/unemployment, hours worked and social relations and happiness. The chapter thus mainly uses, for example, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s How’s Life? and World Happiness Reports.
