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Data

Self-reported freedom

What you should know about this indicator

  • This data comes from the Global Flourishing Study (GFS), a five-year longitudinal data collection and research collaboration between researchers at Baylor University, Harvard University and the Center for Open Science in cooperation with Gallup. The data covers more then 200,00 participants in more than 20 counties.
  • The GFS collects data annually from the same panel of respondents. While the goal is to survey the same people every year, some people might drop out of the survey and do not respond to later waves. This means the data in 2024 and the following years is from a subset of respondents who enrolled in the first year (2023).
Self-reported freedom
Average of responses of how much the respondent agreed with the statement that they have the freedom to pursue the things that are important to them, ranging from 0 ("strongly disagree") to 10 ("strongly agree").
Source
Global Flourishing Study (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
April 8, 2026
Next expected update
April 2027
Date range
2023–2024

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Global Flourishing Study

The Global Flourishing Study (GFS) is a five-year longitudinal data collection and research collaboration between researchers at Baylor University and Harvard University, in partnership with Gallup and the Center for Open Science (COS), and with the support of a consortium of funders. As part of this project, COS is making the data from the study an open access resource so researchers, journalists, policymakers, and educators worldwide can access detailed information about what makes for a flourishing life.

This initiative includes data collection for approximately 200,000 participants from 20+ geographically and culturally diverse countries and territories, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China (Hong Kong), Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States. The study will obtain nationally representative data within each country, with collection on the same panel of individuals annually.

GFS measures global human flourishing in six areas:

  • Happiness and life satisfaction
  • Mental and physical health
  • Meaning and purpose
  • Character and virtue
  • Close social relationships
  • Material and financial stability

The GFS is being led by principal investigators Byron R. Johnson, Director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, and Tyler J. VanderWeele, Director of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University.

Retrieved on
April 8, 2026
Retrieved from
https://globalflourishingstudy.com/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Johnson, B. R., Ritter, Z., Fogleman, A., Markham, L., Stankov, T., Srinivasan, R., Honohan, J., Ripley, A., Phillips, T.A., Wang, H., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2024, February 8). The Global Flourishing Study. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/3JTZ8

The Global Flourishing Study (GFS) is a five-year longitudinal data collection and research collaboration between researchers at Baylor University and Harvard University, in partnership with Gallup and the Center for Open Science (COS), and with the support of a consortium of funders. As part of this project, COS is making the data from the study an open access resource so researchers, journalists, policymakers, and educators worldwide can access detailed information about what makes for a flourishing life.

This initiative includes data collection for approximately 200,000 participants from 20+ geographically and culturally diverse countries and territories, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China (Hong Kong), Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States. The study will obtain nationally representative data within each country, with collection on the same panel of individuals annually.

GFS measures global human flourishing in six areas:

  • Happiness and life satisfaction
  • Mental and physical health
  • Meaning and purpose
  • Character and virtue
  • Close social relationships
  • Material and financial stability

The GFS is being led by principal investigators Byron R. Johnson, Director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, and Tyler J. VanderWeele, Director of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University.

Retrieved on
April 8, 2026
Retrieved from
https://globalflourishingstudy.com/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Johnson, B. R., Ritter, Z., Fogleman, A., Markham, L., Stankov, T., Srinivasan, R., Honohan, J., Ripley, A., Phillips, T.A., Wang, H., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2024, February 8). The Global Flourishing Study. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/3JTZ8

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline
Notes on our processing step for this indicator
  • All averages are calculated as the mean of the valid responses to the question.
  • For the first wave of responses, we assigned the year 2023 to all responses, even though a small number of responses (~15%) were collected in 2024 or 2022. This will make it easier to compare developments over the different waves of the survey.

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Self-reported freedom”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Global Flourishing Study. Retrieved from https://gfs-wave-2-new.owid.pages.dev:8789/20260304-094028/grapher/self-reported-freedom.html [online resource] (archived on March 4, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Global Flourishing Study (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Global Flourishing Study (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Self-reported freedom” [dataset]. Global Flourishing Study, “Global Flourishing Study” [original data]. Retrieved April 10, 2026 from https://gfs-wave-2-new.owid.pages.dev:8789/20260304-094028/grapher/self-reported-freedom.html (archived on March 4, 2026).

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