How important are social contacts with your neighbors for your life satisfaction? And how does this varies among different groups of residents? In a recently published article ‘Neighborhood-based social capital and life satisfaction: The case of Rotterdam, The Netherlands’, Marloes Hoogerbrugge and Martijn Burger of EHERO, examine the relationship between neighborhood-based social capital and residents’ life satisfaction. Using a database of the city of Rotterdam (NL) they find a small but significant positive association between neighborhood-based social capital and individual life satisfaction. They also find considerable differences among residents because neighborhood-based social capital is important mainly for people who are likely to spend considerable time in their neighborhood or people who are more neighborhood dependent.
