Male versus female flourishing: A cross-sectional analysis of 202,898 participants across 22 countries on 73 variables in the Global Flourishing Study

Among the most prominent topics of debate in modern societies is whether men or women are doing better in life. Despite a vast literature, most research is constrained by two issues: a limited conceptualization and assessment of what it means to do well; and a relatively narrow, often Western-centric coverage. To address these issues, this paper examines male-female differences on 73 items relating to all aspects of wellbeing in the Global Flourishing Study, with data from 202,898 participants residing in 22 countries. When organizing the items into six domains according to Tyler VanderWeele’s flourishing framework, females do slightly better on three (happiness and satisfaction, social relationship quality, and meaning and purpose), and males on two (self-rated health and financial and material security), and with character/virtue equal. Since females are only marginally higher on three, whereas the gap on the two male-led ones is much bigger, males fare better on an overall flourishing index. There is also considerable country-level variation throughout however, showing these general trends are not universal but are contingent on local socio-cultural dynamics.