4 items · Time frame: These days / in general
The OECD's primary measure of subjective well-being (life satisfaction) and its eudaimonic measure (the things one does in life are worthwhile), each on a 0–10 scale. About 60 seconds. Best asked at baseline and exit, early in the survey and not straight after questions on income, health or other sensitive topics. Asked word for word, the answers are comparable with national statistics: close to 90% of OECD countries collect the life-satisfaction item. The OECD core module has a third item on pain over the past 7 days, which is not included in this entry.
Source
OECD (2025), Box 2.2 (core module), p. 32. Both items also appear in the 2013 Guidelines.
Usage
Report each item separately (no total score): the mean, the standard deviation, the ratio of the top 20% to the bottom 20%, and the share scoring 4 or less ("low life satisfaction"; things done in life "not worthwhile"). Ask the items in this order. If space allows a single item, it should be life satisfaction.
Citation
OECD (2025). OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being (2025 Update). OECD Publishing, Paris.
doi:10.1787/9203632a-enLicense: Item wording from OECD (2025), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Attribution: OECD (2025), OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being (2025 Update), OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9203632a-en. Do not use the OECD logo or suggest that the OECD endorses a study.
The following question asks how satisfied you feel, on a scale from 0 to 10. Zero means you feel "not at all satisfied" and 10 means you feel "completely satisfied".
Overall, how satisfied are you with life as a whole these days?
The following question asks how worthwhile you feel the things you do in your life are, on a scale from 0 to 10. Zero means you feel the things you do in your life are "not at all worthwhile", and 10 means "completely worthwhile".
Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
Use this module in your own ESM/EMA study — drop it into a survey within SMAAT.