Quality of Life and Happiness

This study aimed to reveal the relationship between quality of life and happiness in a comparative manner, to underline the importance of happiness and enable researchers to familiarize themselves with happiness in the sociological context of Turkey. Quality of life and happiness, which are multidimensional and interdisciplinary concepts, were firstly identified by looking at their treatment in different approaches. Then, they were analyzed by relating them to different variables in the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) data which allows for making comparisons among European Union countries and Turkey. Our study is limited to four countries, namely Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary and Turkey that were selected on the basis of two criteria; their average of happiness score and their membership status in the European Union. On the other hand, the independent variables of the study are “having” (material living conditions), “loving” (social relations), “being” (quality of society), “time pressure” (work-life balance), “alienation”, “environment”, internet using, health and socio-demographic variables namely gender, age, region, employment status and educational level.