Happiness drives life satisfaction more than exercise

A new analysis suggests that the biggest boost to how satisfied we feel with life doesn’t come just from moving more, but from feeling healthier – especially mentally healthier.

Using a simple model applied to people who join a free weekly 5K, researchers found that improvements in health, happiness, and a sense of achievement were the strongest predictors of rising life satisfaction.

In a new study, Steve Haake of Sheffield Hallam University and colleagues have unveiled a model for tracking changes in life satisfaction and tested it on the parkrun community in the UK.

The team’s case study draws on tens of thousands of survey responses and links them to nearly a million recent participants to reveal what, exactly, seems to move the needle.

Mental health leads the way

Life satisfaction is shaped by many things we can’t easily change, such as personality, and many we can, such as relationships, financial worries, and community. Health sits near the top of that second list.

The team’s model starts there, asking whether regularly taking part in a communal run or walk shifts people’s overall satisfaction with life.

In the latest UK figures from 2024, the average life satisfaction score is 7.5 out of 10. The question is how to lift that number for real people in real communities, not just in theory.

Surveying thousands of runners

The researchers surveyed more than 78,000 participants at parkrun, a free, community-based running and walking event, about their life satisfaction and health. They also asked about prior activity levels and how those changed after joining.

The answers were matched to records for close to one million people who had completed at least one parkrun in the previous year. That pairing allowed them to situate each respondent within the broader parkrun population, not just among the keenest runners.

Most respondents were already active and rated their health as “good” or “very good.” But the model revealed something important. Those who started out in “very bad” health had the most room to improve – and when they did, they experienced the biggest increases in life satisfaction.

Happiness matters more than speed

Physical health mattered, yet the strongest ties to rising life satisfaction came from mental health measures.

The measures included how happy people said they felt, how much mental well-being they reported, whether they felt personal achievement, and above all – enjoyment and fun.

This cluster of feelings tracked more closely with improvements in life satisfaction than raw training volume or finish times.

In other words, a community event that reliably generates happiness, pride, and enjoyment may be doing more for life satisfaction than any single physical metric.

Life satisfaction varies by group

The model could also account for factors not shaped by participation, like age and gender. The team saw the familiar “U-shaped” curve in life satisfaction across the lifespan, with a dip in early middle age and a rise thereafter.

Older adults were more likely to report improvements once they got involved. Women, too, were more likely than men to say their life satisfaction had risen.

The nuance here matters for policy. If you want to raise life satisfaction at the population level, it helps to know where the biggest gains are likely to come from.

Healthier lives deliver huge value

The team put a price tag on the broader benefits. They estimate that parkrun delivers about $835 million USD in annual value to the UK.

That includes roughly $94 million for the runs and walks themselves. On average, that works out to about $2.40 USD per completed event per person.

It also includes nearly $165 million USD from participants’ increased physical activity beyond the Saturday 5K. Finally, it adds approximately $579 million from an estimated 3% improvement in health status reported in prior research.

Those are big numbers for a grassroots, volunteer-powered program. They also help decision-makers compare parkrun-like initiatives with other public health investments when budgets are tight.

Model applies far beyond running

The point isn’t that running is magic. It’s that the model can help pinpoint which ingredients in a public health program are most likely to lift life satisfaction.

In this study, the heavy hitters were better health overall and, especially, improved mental health – happiness, accomplishment, and plain old enjoyment – supported by regular, low-barrier activity in a social setting.

That’s a recipe you can test in many places: community walking groups, free outdoor classes, workplace activity challenges, library-hosted meetups. The model offers a way to measure whether they actually make people’s lives feel better, and for whom.

“Our previous paper showed that life satisfaction increased for those participating in parkrun – what we didn’t know was how parkrun ‘worked,’” the researchers wrote. “This new paper has given us an answer to this question: health status, increases in activity level, and the pleasure from cumulative parkruns.”

“Rather than the physical aspects of parkrun, it is the improvements to mental health that are most important, things like happiness, a sense of personal achievement, and having fun.”

The research is published in the journal PLOS Global Public Health.

—–

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates. 

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

—–