Abstract
A prominent debate in modern society is how males or females are faring relative to each other. Despite a vast literature, most research is constrained by two issues: a limited conceptualization and assessment of what it means to do well; and a relatively narrow, often Western-centric coverage. To address these issues, this paper examines male-female differences on 73 items relating to all aspects of wellbeing in the Global Flourishing Study, with data from 202,898 participants across 22 countries. When organizing the items into six domains according to VanderWeele’s flourishing framework, females do slightly better on three (happiness and satisfaction, social relationship quality, and meaning and purpose), and males on two (self-rated health, and financial and material security), and with character/virtue equal. While all domains are weighted equally, since females are only marginally higher on three, whereas the gaps on the two male-led ones are much bigger, males fare slightly better on an overall flourishing index. There is also considerable country-level variation throughout the findings however, showing these general trends are not universal but contingent on local socio-cultural dynamics.
Data availability
Data that support the findings of this article (Wave 1 non-sensitive Global data) are openly available on the Open Science Framework ([https://www.cos.io/gfs-access-data]), being available from February 2024 - March 2026 via preregistration and publicly from then onwards. Subsequent waves of the GFS will similarly be made available.
Code availability
Code in multiple software is openly available in an online repository49 for the demographic variation and childhood predictor analyses (https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/vbype).
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Funding
The Global Flourishing Study was generously funded by the John Templeton Foundation (#61665), Templeton Religion Trust (#1308), Templeton World Charity Foundation (#0605), Well-Being for Planet Earth, Fetzer Institute (#4354), Well Being Trust, Paul L. Foster Family Foundation, and the David & Carol Myers Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations. The funding sources had no impact on the study design; on the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; on the writing of the manuscript; or on the decision to submit the article for publication.
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T.J.V. and B.R.J. led the overall study of which this paper reports a subset of results. T.L. conceptualized, designed, and planned the paper, in collaboration with all authors. R.N.P. led the analyses and prepared all the tables and figures. T.L. wrote the first draft and subsequent revisions. All authors provided feedback of the various drafts of the manuscript, helped edit and refine the text, and reviewed the final version.
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Tyler J. VanderWeele reports partial ownership and licensing fees from Gloo, Inc. The remaining authors have no competing interests to declare.
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Lomas, T., Padgett, R.N., Warren, M.A. et al. A cross-sectional analysis of male versus female flourishing among 202,898 participants across 22 countries on 73 variables in the global flourishing study. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40963-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40963-z