The Global Flourishing Study (GFS) announced on Apr. 8 that it has released the first two waves of its data to the public through the Center for Open Science, with access provided at no cost and without pre-registration. The data is now available to researchers, journalists, policymakers, and the general public via the Open Science Framework website.
This release represents a major milestone for what is described as the most comprehensive empirical investigation of human flourishing ever undertaken. The GFS has already led to more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including a special Nature Portfolio collection featuring 35 studies based solely on its first wave of data.
"We built this study because we believed the world needed a rigorous, shared language for what makes life go well," said Byron R. Johnson, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University and co-director of the GFS. "Today we're putting the evidence in everyone's hands."
The study is co-directed by Johnson and Tyler VanderWeele, Ph.D., from Harvard University and conducted in partnership with Gallup and the Center for Open Science. It follows about 200,000 participants across 22 countries and one territory while measuring flourishing across six domains.
By surveying the same participants over multiple waves, GFS aims to move beyond simple correlations toward answering causal questions that cross-sectional research cannot address. Data from Waves 1 and 2 are now open for general use along with instructions and documentation from Gallup; however, access to some sensitive variables still requires Institutional Review Board approval. Researchers who pre-register their studies through the Global Flourishing Registry will also be able to access Wave 3 data.
The availability of this large-scale dataset may support new insights into human well-being worldwide.
