People who live in small towns and rural areas are happier than everyone else

[cawacko]

Interesting Canadian study. Being a City person myself I go crazy in rural areas but I understand what's being said here.





People who live in small towns and rural areas are happier than everyone else, researchers say

Heaven is wide open spaces - at least, it is for most people, according to a massive new data set of happiness in Canada.

A team of happiness researchers at the Vancouver School of Economics and McGill University recently published a working paper on the geography of well-being in Canada. They compiled 400,000 responses to a pair of national Canadian surveys, allowing them to parse out distinctions in well-being at the level of more than 1,200 communities representing the country's entire geography.

They were able to cross-reference the well-being responses with other survey data, as well as figures from the Canadian census, to see what sorts of characteristics were associated with happiness at the community level: Are happier communities richer, for instance? Are the people there more educated? Do they spend more time in church?

Their chief finding is a striking association between population density - the concentration of people in a given area - and happiness. When the researchers ranked all 1,215 communities by average happiness, they found that average population density in the 20 percent most miserable communities was more than eight times greater than in the happiest 20 percent of communities.

"Life is significantly less happy in urban areas," the paper concluded.

In the region around the city of Toronto, densely populated areas like Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener stand out as islands of relative unhappiness in a sea of satisfaction in the hinterlands.

The happiness measure is derived from a survey question that asks responses to rate "how satisfied" they are with their lives, on a scale from 1 to 10. Across Canada, community-level average responses to this question range from 7.04 to 8.94. This may not seem like a wide range of difference, but Canadians rarely offer self-assessments outside this range; in a typical year just five percent of Canadians rate their satisfaction below a 5, for instance.

It's useful to think of this narrow spectrum of responses as representing the entire continuum of Canadian happiness. Hence, the study's authors note that even small differences in the absolute score are highly statistically significant.

So what makes the happiest communities different from all the rest? Aside from fewer people, the authors found that the happiest communities had shorter commute times and less expensive housing, and that a smaller share of the population was foreign-born. They also found that people in the happiest communities are less transient than in the least happy communities, that they are more likely to attend church and that they are significantly more likely to feel a "sense of belonging" in their communities.

It may seem contradictory that greater happiness is correlated with both lower population density (implying fewer interpersonal interactions) and a greater sense of "belonging" in one's community (implying stronger social connections). But a significant body of research shows that having a strong social network is key to well-being. Some studies indicate that small towns and rural areas are more conducive than cities to forming strong social bonds, which would explain some of the greater sense of belonging observed in the happiest Canadian communities.

Perhaps even more surprising are the factors that don't appear to play a major role in community-level differences in happiness: average income levels and rates of unemployment and education. People may move to cities for good-paying jobs, but the Canadian study strongly suggests it's not making them any happier.
These findings comport with similar studies done in the United States, which have revealed a "rural-urban happiness gradient:" The farther away from cities people live, the happier they tend to be.

One important caveat in the Canadian study is that the authors aren't making any strong statements about causality: There's a clear association between low population density and reported happiness, but that doesn't mean that low population density causes happiness. A miserable city dweller who moves to the country might simply become a miserable country dweller, in other words.

However, it's clear that there's something about small towns and rural life that's associated with greater levels of self-reported happiness among people who live in those places. The strength of the Canadian study is that it parses out these distinctions at an uncommonly fine level of geographic detail.


https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/...s-12922528.php

[Cypress]

I have lived in both cities and smaller towns, and one thing that is universally true is that traffic, congestion, and long bumper-to-bumper commutes can suck the life out of anyone's soul. That is just a given and is true of everyone I have talked to that has experience living in cities.

I also do not think there is strictly a bimodal, black-and-white question here. It depends on what kind of small town, and what kind of city. I liked San Francisco much more than I liked Houston. I like small beach communities or college towns that have some culture and lots of educated people, more than small, one-horse towns on the plains of Wyoming, or inconsequential trailer parks in rural Alabama.

[Damocles]

I live out in the middle of nowhere because I don't like people as a group. And yeah, it does make for a better life.

[CFM]

I have lived in both cities and smaller towns, and one thing that is universally true is that traffic, congestion, and long bumper-to-bumper commutes can suck the life out of anyone's soul. That is just a given and is true of everyone I have talked to that has experience living in cities.

I also do not think there is strictly a bimodal, black-and-white question here. It depends on what kind of small town, and what kind of city. I liked San Francisco much more than I liked Houston. I like small beach communities or college towns that have some culture and lots of educated people, more than small, one-horse towns on the plains of Wyoming, or inconsequential trailer parks in rural Alabama.

A small town or a big city where idiots like you don't live both can be great places.

[Cypress]

A small town or a big city where idiots like you don't live both can be great places.

^^^
As you know, I did not read a word and I almost never pay attention to you.

My writing must be really interesting to you. Even though I rarely read or respond to you, you seem to really like to read my posts. IMO, nothing says "loser" more than the internet dunce who follows someone around, reads their posts, and writes to them even knowing they are being ignored, overlooked, and bypassed.

[CFM]

^^^
As you know, I did not read a word and I almost never pay attention to you.

My writing must be really interesting to you. Even though I rarely read or respond to you, you seem to really like to read my posts. IMO, nothing says "loser" more than the internet dunce who follows someone around, reads their posts, and writes to them even knowing they are being ignored, overlooked, and bypassed.

All that proves is you're a coward that can't defend what you support.

Don't flatter yourself. I don't follow you around. I simply post back when you made stupid fucking statements, nigger.

[mak2]

I have lived near very small towns and in the big city. I like both. I am pretty happy either place.

[mak2]

Why does every thread on this forum go stupid so fast?

[CFM]

Why does every thread on this forum go stupid so fast?

It wasn't until post #7.

[Micawber]

I have some new neighbors who moved from a four acre home in east county. They raised their kids in the country
but they feel they can afford to be urban now and they hated having to drive to get decent food. Now they can stroll
for farm to table instead of eating at Arbys.

One thing in So Cal is if you move east you move to 115 degrees. That's a principle reason everyone is near the coast if they can afford housing.

[hvilleherb]

Retire to the Simpler Life in a Small Town

If you treasure your anonymity, you may not want to live in a place where everyone really knows your name, as well as your business, says Frank Levering, who moved with his wife, Wanda Urbanska, from Los Angeles to rural Virginia.

https://www.kiplinger.com/article/re...mall-town.html

[hvilleherb]

I've noticed an increase in big city folks moving to small towns to retire.


Packing it in and moving to small town may be your only retirement strategy left

The small-town appeal is a huge factor for retirees because it can allow them to sell their house in a large city and extract the equity, which they can then live off for their remaining years.

http://business.financialpost.com/pe...-strategy-left

[Micawber]

I've never been to British Columbia, but vacationed in Quebec for a few weeks. Lovely place.

[Jack]

Ever ride a Subway car in New York? Everybody stares at their shoes. There is no eye contact.
People in small towns want to know who the stranger is. They'll wave and say 'Hi'.
I think it comes down to personal space. We all have a need.
I think there is a constant dread of being 'crowded' or 'invaded' when you live in a big city.

[Gotcha68]

Interesting Canadian study. Being a City person myself I go crazy in rural areas but I understand what's being said here.





People who live in small towns and rural areas are happier than everyone else, researchers say

Heaven is wide open spaces - at least, it is for most people, according to a massive new data set of happiness in Canada.

A team of happiness researchers at the Vancouver School of Economics and McGill University recently published a working paper on the geography of well-being in Canada. They compiled 400,000 responses to a pair of national Canadian surveys, allowing them to parse out distinctions in well-being at the level of more than 1,200 communities representing the country's entire geography.

They were able to cross-reference the well-being responses with other survey data, as well as figures from the Canadian census, to see what sorts of characteristics were associated with happiness at the community level: Are happier communities richer, for instance? Are the people there more educated? Do they spend more time in church?

Their chief finding is a striking association between population density - the concentration of people in a given area - and happiness. When the researchers ranked all 1,215 communities by average happiness, they found that average population density in the 20 percent most miserable communities was more than eight times greater than in the happiest 20 percent of communities.

"Life is significantly less happy in urban areas," the paper concluded.

In the region around the city of Toronto, densely populated areas like Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener stand out as islands of relative unhappiness in a sea of satisfaction in the hinterlands.

The happiness measure is derived from a survey question that asks responses to rate "how satisfied" they are with their lives, on a scale from 1 to 10. Across Canada, community-level average responses to this question range from 7.04 to 8.94. This may not seem like a wide range of difference, but Canadians rarely offer self-assessments outside this range; in a typical year just five percent of Canadians rate their satisfaction below a 5, for instance.

It's useful to think of this narrow spectrum of responses as representing the entire continuum of Canadian happiness. Hence, the study's authors note that even small differences in the absolute score are highly statistically significant.

So what makes the happiest communities different from all the rest? Aside from fewer people, the authors found that the happiest communities had shorter commute times and less expensive housing, and that a smaller share of the population was foreign-born. They also found that people in the happiest communities are less transient than in the least happy communities, that they are more likely to attend church and that they are significantly more likely to feel a "sense of belonging" in their communities.

It may seem contradictory that greater happiness is correlated with both lower population density (implying fewer interpersonal interactions) and a greater sense of "belonging" in one's community (implying stronger social connections). But a significant body of research shows that having a strong social network is key to well-being. Some studies indicate that small towns and rural areas are more conducive than cities to forming strong social bonds, which would explain some of the greater sense of belonging observed in the happiest Canadian communities.

Perhaps even more surprising are the factors that don't appear to play a major role in community-level differences in happiness: average income levels and rates of unemployment and education. People may move to cities for good-paying jobs, but the Canadian study strongly suggests it's not making them any happier.
These findings comport with similar studies done in the United States, which have revealed a "rural-urban happiness gradient:" The farther away from cities people live, the happier they tend to be.

One important caveat in the Canadian study is that the authors aren't making any strong statements about causality: There's a clear association between low population density and reported happiness, but that doesn't mean that low population density causes happiness. A miserable city dweller who moves to the country might simply become a miserable country dweller, in other words.

However, it's clear that there's something about small towns and rural life that's associated with greater levels of self-reported happiness among people who live in those places. The strength of the Canadian study is that it parses out these distinctions at an uncommonly fine level of geographic detail.


https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/...s-12922528.php

The small towns I have lived in are full of gossips and angry with their own damn lives people who have nothing better to do than bitch about their neighbors over every perceived slight.

But who also have raffles and get togethers etc to help each other out to pay medical bills that have overwhelmed a family.

And everything in between.

Big cities are more anonymous. Nobody really cares about you and will happily ignore you and everybody else...even to the point of walking around you as you lay broken on the sidewalk or drive by you as you sit in your recently crashed car. Nobody wants to get involved.

But sometimes they do.

And everything in between.

Pick your poison.