Linking Sustainability and Well-Being: Environmental and Social Determinants of Quality of Life in the European Union

The evolving paradigm of sustainable development demands an integrated understanding of how environmental and social sustainability influence human well-being. This study examines the relationship between environmental conditions, social infrastructure, and quality of life in 27 member states of the European Union (EU), where sustainability is a key component of policy agendas. Addressing a critical knowledge gap in sustainability science, descriptive statistics, correlation, covariance analysis, and principal component analysis (PCA) were applied to interconnected quality-of-life indices, including pollution, healthcare, safety, and climate indices. Our findings indicate that healthcare access exhibits a strong positive correlation (r = 0.737) for well-being, while pollution is the most negative determinant, showing an inverse correlation (r = -0.874). According to PCA analysis, the first two components account for 80% of the variation in quality of life, highlighting the significance of health and environmental factors. The study revealed that nations like Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary lag mostly due to high pollution levels and inadequate healthcare systems. The Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland consistently performed well due to their balanced approach to environmental and social sustainability. The results underscore that the two main determinants of regional well-being outcomes are improved environmental quality and healthcare access. The study promotes the sustainability-well-being nexus as a quantifiable means of raising living standards in a variety of socio-ecological contexts rather than an abstract goal. Furthermore, this investigation renders a path to sustainability for other nations.