Subjective well-being, a broad term which refers to how individuals evaluate the quality of their own lives as well as the presence and intensity of emotions they experience on a day-to-day basis, has been gaining increasing attention in both academic and policy circles as a useful measure of human well-being. This interest has inspired a large research literature spanning over 170,000 books and articles to date. However, few sociologists have engaged with this topic, which is a shortcoming considering that we are well suited to examine the interplay between objective conditions and subjective perceptions. Furthermore, only a small subset of studies considers the influence of experiences in nature and the conditions of the biophysical environment on subjective well-being. In this study, I addressed these gaps in the literature by examining the social and environmental influences on individual subjective well-being. I conducted three distinct studies, each at a different level (i.e. state, national, and cross-national). As a sociologist, I remained attentive to how factors such as class, gender, and race and ethnicity contribute to social inequalities in subjective well-being. I conclude with an assessment of subjective well-being as an indicator of sustainable development that reflects the mutual flourishing of humans and the rest of the natural world.
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