Happiness in shrinking cities in Germany : A research note

Abstract

After decades of urban growth, modern societies now face an increasing number of shrinking cities. What is the impact on the inhabitants of shrinkage of their city? Negative effects dominate in the public discourse, but does growth or shrinkage really matter for the livability in urban environment? In this paper, I take stock of the effect on subjective well-being in present day Germany. Overall satisfaction with life appears not to be lower in shrinking cities and satisfaction with several domains of life even higher. This is not because inhabitants are unaware of the situation of their city, since they appear to be more concerned about job-chances and crime. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.