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

Linking Sustainability and Well-Being: Environmental and Social Determinants of Quality of Life in the European Union | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Linking Sustainability and Well-Being: Environmental and Social Determinants of Quality of Life in the European Union Devanshi Kapoor, Shilpi Gupta, Madhav Dhakal, Chandrabhan Seniya This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7419906/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract 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. Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences Social science/Environmental studies Humanities/Health humanities Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7419906","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":521927039,"identity":"aea9829a-e204-4984-871f-ee40e00b882a","order_by":0,"name":"Devanshi Kapoor","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Manipal University Jaipur","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Devanshi","middleName":"","lastName":"Kapoor","suffix":""},{"id":521927040,"identity":"2b23250c-09f5-489a-b5ab-33a807e4f409","order_by":1,"name":"Shilpi Gupta","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Manipal University 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