Paper short abstract:

Wellbeing is a critical aspect of SDGs. We analyze the intertemporal changes in the role of safety and health on wellbeing by a multidimensional index for 47 countries. The result reveals that wellbeing varies worldwide but increases over time. In particular, safety and health are significant contributors to wellbeing—the contribution of safety increases over time while it varies for health.

Paper long abstract:

Research Context:

Human wellbeing is a critical aspect of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2015). Overall wellbeing is determined by various social and economic domains such as health, finance, culture, safety and security, governance, religion, and science and technology (Cummins et al., 2003; Hasan et al., 2024). In the post-Cold War era, there has been a significant evolution in security perspectives. It now extends beyond the traditional focus on a state's worries about external military threats, encompassing non-state concerns like terrorist attacks carried out by individuals or groups, such as the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers (Asaka, 2021). Moreover, the emergence and spread of infectious diseases with pandemic potential (avian influenza, swine flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and recent, COVID-19) occurred throughout history (Piret and Boivin, 2021) and severely affected human health and wellbeing. Thus, security and health have become essential elements of human wellbeing in recent years due to the pandemic and other domestic and international global security concerns.

It has been found that when citizens feel safe and protected from danger, risk, or injury, both mentally and physically, their wellbeing is enhanced (Cummins et al., 2003; OECD, 2011). To this end, we carry out a cross-country study of forty-seven countries across the globe examining the extent to which safety and health contribute to human wellbeing. The motivation of the study is three-fold: (1) the countries encompass varied and diverse landscapes, climates, societies, cultures, religions, and economies and are characterized by increasing interdependence in terms of natural resources, finance, domestic and regional security, and trade (IGES, 2024); (2) several major wars took place across the globe, such as the Afghanistan war and the Iraq war, and continuous safety threats from terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaida, and Islamic State (IS) (Asaka, 2021) that created safety and security concerns and tensions; and (3) several pandemics that created health issues such as swine flu, avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, (MERS-CoV) occurred across the globe (Piret and Boivin, 2021). However, the global impact of safety and health on human wellbeing is unmeasured.

Methodology:

We use a multidimensional wellbeing index (MDWI) following Hasan et al. (2024). We further extend our analysis on the intertemporal changes in wellbeing and the contribution of safety and health domains to the MDWI globally. We evaluate the changing pattern of safety and health’s contribution to wellbeing with a view to providing valuable policy insights to the governments and policymakers in formulating policies that ensure the safety and better health of the citizens. In doing so and based on availability of data we consider eighteen countries in Asia and the Pacific, namely (1) Australia, (2) China, (3) Hong Kong, (4) Indonesia, (5) Iran, (6) Iraq, (7) Japan, (8) Jordan, (9) Kyrgyzstan, (10), Lebanon, (11) Malaysia, (12) New Zealand, (13) Philippines, (14) Singapore, (15) South Korea, (16) Taiwan, (17) Thailand, and (18) Vietnam; twelve countries in Europe, namely (1) Armenia, (2) Cyprus, (3) Germany, (4) Great Britain, (5) the Netherlands, (6) Romania, (7) Russia, (8) Slovenia, (9) Spain, (10) Sweden, (11) Turkey, and (12) Ukraine; seven countries in Africa, namely (1) Egypt, (2) Libya, (3) Morocco, (4) Nigeria, (5) South Africa, (6) Tunisia, and (7) Zimbabwe; three countries in North America, namely (1) Canada, (2) Mexico, and (3) the United States; and seven countries in South America, namely (1) Argentina, (2) Brazil, (3) Chile, (4) Colombia, (5) Ecuador, (6) Peru, and (7) Uruguay.

We utilize four different waves (Wave 4: 1999-2004; Wave 5: 2005-09; Wave 6: 2010-14; and Wave 7: 2017-22) of the World Values Survey (WVS) data to determine the contributions of safety and health domains and associated indicators of human wellbeing to the MDWI. In addition to these domains, we also included finance, culture, governance, religion, and science and technology, as these have been identified to determine overall human wellbeing (Cummins et al., 2003; Hasan et al., 2024; OECD, 2011). The WVS provides nationally representative samples that span diverse information, such as perceptions of political, economic, cultural, social, and religious beliefs (Ergin and Mandiracioglu, 2015; Hasan et al., 2024).

Analysis and conclusions:

Our preliminary analysis reveals that, in general, and at present, countries across the globe enjoy moderate to moderately high levels of wellbeing, ranging from MDWI=0.462 (Peru) to MDWI=0.744 (the Netherlands). Overall, the MDWI has increased over time with some fluctuations. Notably, it has decreased in some countries, such as Iraq, Nigeria, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, and Ecuador. Domain contribution to the MDWI varies over time; however, safety (10-20%) and health (20-40%) significantly contribute to the MDWI in all countries and all waves. The contribution of safety and security to wellbeing has increased over time in almost all countries. This implies that people’s wellbeing increases when they feel safe at home, have higher self-perceived feelings of security, experience a low frequency of crimes, and have never been victims of crime. On the other hand, the contribution of the health domain to the MDWI fluctuated over time and across countries but remains one of the largest contributors. This implies that people’s wellbeing increases with higher self-perceived feelings of physical and mental health, and when they do not suffer from hunger and treatment or medicine. In conclusion, our analysis suggests further investigation into why people value safety, security, and health as significant contributors to the MDWI, and we suggest policy formulation should be in such a way that the citizens feel safe and remain healthy in order to enjoy higher wellbeing.