#86: Paul Dunny: Measuring Wellbeing and Happiness in Ireland

The Economics of Well-Being

Paul Dunny joins me today from Dublin, Ireland to discuss our recent well-being and happiness survey of Ireland (both Northern and the Republic) which was conducted in April 2021 during the Covid 19 pandemic. Paul is head of CRM and Retention with Mediahuis (Independent News and Media) which is Ireland's largest digital and print media outlet. Paul had approached me several months ago asking if I might conduct a national well-being and happiness survey for his digital media firm. I was thrilled since this would be the first opportunity to test the Soul Print of Well-being Survey I had developed and been testing over the last 2 years. The Ireland survey was conducted over a 15 day period in April 2021 with remarkable results and an excellent response rate of nearly 2500 Irish from both the North and the South.

The results showed that there was a very small gap between life satisfaction of Northerner vs the Irish in the South; the people in the North were slightly happier than the South but their trust for government was much lower. Most surprising was the high level of trust and sense of feeling welcome and belonging to their local neighbourhoods and communities. The value of assessing the perceptions of mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being was clearly demonstrated in this important project that we hope others will model elsewhere around the world.

The results of the survey will be published soon on Independent.ie platform.

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