Flourishing in Sweden: Great overall—but not for all

Abstract

Sweden consistently ranks among the world’s happiest nations in global surveys. However, such rankings—typically focused on one single life evaluation indicator—may obscure important differences across life domains and population subgroups. Using nationally representative data from 15,068 Swedish adults in the Global Flourishing Study (GFS), this article offers a multidimensional assessment of human flourishing in Sweden across seven domains: psychological wellbeing, purpose and meaning, character and virtue, psychological distress, physical health, social wellbeing, and financial wellbeing. Swedish respondents, on average, reported high levels of life evaluation and financial wellbeing, and low psychological distress, positioning Sweden favorably among the 22 GFS countries. However, comparatively lower scores were observed in purpose and meaning and character and virtue. When comparing population subgroups, a pronounced age gradient emerged, with older Swedes reporting higher wellbeing across nearly all domains compared to younger adults, and many indicators showing medium to large effect sizes (e.g., Cohen’s ds = 0.77 and 0.70 for loneliness and happiness, respectively). Gender and immigration-related differences indicated somewhat lower levels of flourishing among women and foreign-born individuals. The effect sizes were, however, relatively small (e.g., ds at 0.21 in traumatic distress and 0.22 in anxiety for gender and immigration, respectively). These findings highlight Sweden’s strengths in supporting wellbeing and flourishing later in life while also pointing to disparities, particularly among younger adults, but also women and foreign-born populations. The results underscore the value of a multidimensional flourishing framework that moves beyond life evaluations and national averages to identify wellbeing inequalities between sociodemographic groups, even in a country routinely ranked among the world’s happiest.