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Synonyms

Abundance; Prosperity; Wealth

Definition

The word affluence is associated with an abundant amount of something, most often money and material goods. Affluence is also a synonym of wealth, and it has been found to have a positive relationship with Happiness or subjective well-being and overall Quality of Life.

Description

Economic development is one of the main goals around countries in the world, and economic success is sought-after by individuals. Consequently, personal and national success is often measured in terms of ability to generate or raise the amount of available wealth. Wealth is associated with positive outcomes in life. Diener (2009) summarizes some of the positive effects of wealth found in the literature. For instance, affluent people live longer (Wilkison, 1996) and have better health, and their children are less likely to become school dropouts or to become pregnant as teens (Mayer, 1997). Affluent people also benefit from wealth intangibles such as social...

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Correspondence to Nicole Fuentes .

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Fuentes, N. (2014). Affluence. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_47

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_47

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0752-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0753-5

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