Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42634618›Full record

ArticleDiscover global society2026

A comparative "report card" wellbeing assessment of 22 countries in the Global Flourishing Study.

Tim Lomas, R Noah Padgett, James L Ritchie-Dunham, Richard G Cowden, Caleb A Chung, August H Nilsson, Brendan W Case, Ying Chen, Chris Felton, Christos A Makridis and 3 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Discover global society, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Tim LomasDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9458-6185
R Noah PadgettDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA.
James L Ritchie-DunhamMcCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX USA.
Richard G CowdenDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA.
Caleb A ChungHuman Flourishing Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA.
August H NilssonOslo Business School, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway.
Brendan W CaseHuman Flourishing Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA.
Ying ChenDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA.
Chris FeltonDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA.
Christos A MakridisW. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ USA.
Matthew T LeeInstitute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, Waco, TX USA.
Byron R JohnsonInstitute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, Waco, TX USA.
Tyler J VanderWeeleDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

When evaluating how countries are faring, there is a widespread tendency to rely on single metrics or indices, whether objective (e.g., GDP) or subjective (e.g., life evaluation). However, flourishing is multidimensional, and societies invariably do better in some ways and less so in others (even if some places get more things "right" than others), so any comprehensive assessment must be multifaceted. We demonstrate this by evaluating 22 countries in the Global Flourishing Study (GFS) on 77 self-reported flourishing-related indicators in the GFS (involving 207,919 participants) together with 34 national-level objective indicators. The results paint a complex picture. For a start, there was only a relatively modest positive correlation between self-reported flourishing (per an index involving 12 GFS items) and objective flourishing (per a seven-indicator index created for this paper), with an Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s44282-026-00502-7.

Indexed as

Cross-culturalFlourishingGlobal flourishing studyHappinessWellbeing

Identifiers

PMID42634618
PMCPMC13499843

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.