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 well-being. 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.