Urban and rural disparities: evaluating happiness levels in Indonesian women

Abstract

Grasping the underlying determinants of happiness has significant implications for societal growth and individual wellbeing. To this end, our investigation delved deep into the factors enhancing happiness among Indonesian women, with a spotlight on the disparities evident in urban versus rural settings. From a robust sample size of 38,144 women, we employed logistic regression analysis (using a significance threshold of 0.05) and took advantage of Stata 17’s spmap command to meticulously outline happiness averages across provinces. Our analyses revealed a compelling trend: urban women consistently reported more elevated happiness scores (71.51; 95%CI 71.40-71.62) compared to their rural peers (70.19; 95%CI 70.08-70.29), with a significant p-value of 0.001. Parsing this data further, we recognized that across urban and rural landscapes, the nexus between higher education levels, younger age, and augmented household income remained a strong predictor of happiness elevation. Intriguingly, though, densely populated urban hubs did not always translate to heightened contentment. As a directive, policymakers should amplify efforts towards enriching educational and economic landscapes for women in high-density zones. Moreover, the study suggests a pivotal need to explore the idiosyncratic attributes of distant provinces, aiming to translate those lessons to enrich urban living conditions.