Quality of life is a concept that refers to set of conditions that contribute to the well-being of individuals and the realization of their potential in social life.
Quality of life includes both subjective and objective factors. Between the subjective factors is each individual’s perception of their well-being on a physical, psychological and social level. In the objective factorsFor its part, there would be material well-being, health and a harmonious relationship with the physical environment and the community.
As such, many aspects affect a person’s quality of life, from economic, social, political and environmental conditions, to physical health, psychological state and the harmony of their personal and community relationships.
In this sense, we could analyze the quality of life considering five large areas:
physical well-beingassociated with the health and physical safety of people;
Material well-beingwhich would include income level, purchasing power, access to housing and transportation, among other things;
Social welfarelinked to harmony in personal relationships such as friendships, family and community;
Emotional well-beingwhich includes everything from the person’s self-esteem, to their mentality, their beliefs and their emotional intelligence;
Developmentrelated to access to education and the possibilities of contributing and being productive in the workplace.
For the World Health Organization (WHO) quality of life would imply perception that a person has of their life situation in relation to their context (culture, value system), their goals, aspirations and concerns.
The concept of quality of life has been assumed by different study disciplines, such as economics, medicine or social sciences. For its analysis and measurement, different instruments have been developed, such as indices, surveys, questionnaires or scales to determine the quality of life of a community, city, country or region.
For its part, the United Nations (UN), through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), has established the Human Development Index (HDI) as the indicator to measure the quality of life. Their calculations are based on aspects such as life expectancy, education and GDP per capita, which would leave other equally important aspects, such as access to housing or good nutrition, left out.
Today, a better quality of life should be the objective that countries pursue to have happier citizens, with greater well-being and satisfaction.
Between the countries with the best quality of life in Latin America Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina are in the first places. While in the world countries like Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg stand out.
See also: Social well-being and Socio-affective well-being.