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While single-item measures are inherently limited, a single-item indicator can be time-sensitive, reliable, and valid if well-constructed for a particular purpose. Such as providing a population level summary of evaluative aspects of subjective well-being. We compare two measures of evaluative well-being: life satisfaction (\n                    <jats:italic>Overall<\/jats:italic>\n                    ,\n                    <jats:italic>how satisfied are you with life as a whole these days? )<\/jats:italic>\n                    and Cantril\u2019s ladder life evaluation using data in the Global Flourishing Study which includes over 200,000 participants in 22 countries. We find that life satisfaction is more strongly correlated with happiness, health, meaning, character, relationships, and financial security than life evaluation is. This result held in all 22 countries and with all dimensions of flourishing examined, including financial and material dimensions. While life evaluation is strongly related to financial aspects of well-being, life satisfaction provides a more comprehensive single-item assessment of overall subjective well-being.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s11482-026-10623-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,22]],"date-time":"2026-06-22T12:16:19Z","timestamp":1782130579000},"page":"3337-3348","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Life Satisfaction is More Strongly Correlated with Flourishing Than Cantril\u2019s Ladder"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"R Noah","family":"Padgett","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chris","family":"Felton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Brendan","family":"Case","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tim","family":"Lomas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Byron","family":"Johnson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tyler","family":"VanderWeele","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"10623_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1111\/rssa.12188","volume":"180","author":"P Allin","year":"2017","unstructured":"Allin, P., & Hand, D. 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Gallup is a multi-national corporation, and its IRB covers all countries included in the GFS. All participants provided informed consent. The research conformed to the principles of the Helsinki Declaration. All direct common identifiers were removed from the data used in the present study by Gallup Inc.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","label":"Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Tyler VanderWeele reports consulting fees from Gloo Inc., along with shared revenue received by Harvard University in its license agreement with Gloo according to the University IP policy.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","label":"Competing interests","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}}]}}