By Meik Wiking, CEO of The Happiness Research Institute and Onor Hanreck Wilkinson, Researcher at The Happiness Research Institute

The Happiness Research Institute is an independent think-tank based in Copenhagen. We approach happiness, subjective wellbeing and quality of life from a scientific perspective. Our ambition is to inform decision-makers about the causes and effects of human happiness, make subjective wellbeing part of the public policy debate and improve quality of life across the world.

73% of people who are happy with their home are also happy in life. This is the conclusion drawn by the team here at the Happiness Research Institute, in partnership with Kingfisher and B&Q. Our homes are the place where most of us spend more time than anywhere else, so it is fair to say that the home is largely influential upon life. We have founded a major study on the belief that our homes shape our lives. To conduct the study, we considered the role of our homes for our happiness and tried to answer two prevalent questions: what makes a home? And what makes that home a happy one?

A MAJOR PAN-EUROPEAN STUDY

We couldn’t have done it alone. We had some help from some very obliging individuals. 13,489 to be exact. The report builds on the voices of over 13,000 study participants, male and female, young and old, couples and singles, across 10 European countries, who were invited to share with us their opinions, thoughts, feelings, and experiences at home. These findings, or as we like to call them: our trove of home truths, were analyzed in combination with the expertise from psychologists, social scientists, city planners, architects, and happiness researchers, to allow us to understand the relationship between our homes and our happiness.

IT’S EMOTIONAL

The happiness we feel in relation to our homes is driven by 5 core emotional needs: pride, identity, comfort, safety, and control. These emotions have been chosen because they cover many of our basic needs. And the relationship between these needs and our happiness? When our homes to do not meet them, our wellbeing is negatively impacted. Pride is one of the more tangible emotional needs since it can be generated by our achievements, or derived from qualities or possessions in our home. Whereas comfort, the second most important emotion, refers to our mental state. It is the feeling of being in a stress-free haven, where we are able to shut off from the rest of the world. Identity refers to the home as being an integral part of ourselves, a representation of the people we are and a reflection of how we want the world to see us. Safety reflects our mental state, but also the absence of physical threats. Lastly, control also reflects our mental state as it refers to having agency over our ourselves, therefore we define it as the extent to which we decide what happens to and in our home.

CULTIVATING PRIDE MAKES A HAPPY HOME

The study showed us that pride is the most influential factor for our happiness at home; accounting for 44%. It is, however, the rarest emotion. Our study finds that more than a third of us do not feel proud of our homes. There is a clear and direct link between the pride people feel for their homes and the time and energy they have invested in creating a happy home, such as carrying out home improvements. The study showed us that 74% of people who enjoy and spend time improving their homes, feel proud of their space. While those who do not have the time or money to spend on improving their home, are more likely to feel less proud. If there is a feeling of love-loss between you and your 4 walls, a restorative coat of paint could be the solution.

CLIMBING THE PROPERTY LADDER TO REACH HIGHER LEVELS OF HAPPINESS

Common wisdom could have us believe that owning a house in the countryside would make us happier than renting a studio apartment in the city. However, our research has shown us that life in the rental market can be just as happy as having your name on the deeds to your property. Even though many people across Europe share the same ambition of climbing the property ladder, in some countries such as Germany, it is almost as common to own your home as it is to rent it. Provided that our other basic needs as humans are met, and we feel in control of our homes, then our happiness at home is not generally impacted by ownership or tenancy. Our desire to own is influenced by social comparisons. If our friends own a home, we are more likely to want one for ourselves. Thus, begging the question …

IS IT ALL ABOUT US?

Or is it about those around us? Despite our findings showing us that size and space are not generally correlated, it remained necessary to consider the influence of social comparisons on our home happiness. Some people may report higher levels of home happiness than we would expect because they are doing better than their peers. Similarly, those who are in an objectively good situation may be dissatisfied because they are not keeping up with those around them; be it neighbors, friends and family members or those from a shared background.

BIGGER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER

The general consensus is that we will become happier as individuals if we live in a larger home. The pursuit of a larger home is undoubtedly necessary when families gain new members because the current home is no longer appropriate for our needs. However, size is not as important as we might think. The square meters or number of rooms in a home are only conducive to more happiness until a certain point. ‘Size’ and ‘space’ are often used interchangeably, yet size refers to the number of rooms or square meters of a home, whereas space is something less tangible. A large house can feel cramped and a small home can feel wonderfully airy and spacious. Therefore, we know that living in a small space which feels well-organized and spacious enough for you, is three times more important to our happiness than the number of rooms in our homes, or how many people we live with. It is the feeling of living in a home that is cramped or cluttered which is detrimental to our happiness, as opposed to the physicality of size.

The good home report shows us that we have a tendency to look for happiness in the wrong places because, often, the things we think will make us happy at home and those which really make us happy are not the same. However, one thing remains: in a world demanding more and more of our attention, our homes are where we can retreat and seek refuge.

The study concluded with the publication of the GoodHome report, which is available to read here, if you would like to delve deeper into what makes a home a happy one.

Meik Wiking Bio:
Meik Wiking is the CEO of The Happiness Research Institute. He is a Research Associate for Denmark at the World Database of Happiness, a member of the policy advisory group for the Global Happiness Policy Report and Founding member of The Latin American Network for Wellbeing and Quality of Life Policies. Meik is a New York Times best-selling author and has written several books and reports on happiness, subjective well-being and quality of life.

Onor Hanreck Wilkinson Bio:
Onor Hanreck Wilkinson is a researcher at The Happiness Research Institute. She approaches happiness research using qualitative research methods and contributes to multi-disciplinary projects. She also researches happiness through analyzing language, to explore whether the words spoken by individuals are reflective of their experiences of happiness and how this changes between cultures.

Reach out to Meik and Onor here.

We shape our homes – and then they shape us