Determination of individuals’ life satisfaction levels living in Turkey by FMCDM methods

Purpose: This study aims to determine the ranking of the 81 provinces at the NUTS-3 level in Turkey with respect to the personal satisfaction and public services satisfaction by applying Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making methods to the Life Satisfaction Survey Results. Design/methodology/approach: Fuzzy TOPSIS, Fuzzy MULTIMOORA and Fuzzy ARAS are implemented to assess life satisfaction of the individuals who lived in provinces, based on Life Satisfaction Survey 2013 for Turkey’s national comparison. In the solution process, 14 indicators for personal satisfaction and 38 indicators for public services satisfaction were considered. Findings: The results showed that personal health satisfaction, earnings from work satisfaction and monthly income satisfaction are the most important criteria in terms of personal satisfaction. Also, healthcare services satisfaction, judicial services satisfaction and education services satisfaction have the highest importance in terms of public services satisfaction. The final ranking of the 81 provinces is obtained by considered methods. According to the ranking results, there is no significant difference between the east and the west part of Turkey in terms of personal satisfaction, whereas there is a distinct difference between them in terms of satisfaction with public services. Originality/value: This study is the first research for evaluating the ranking of the provinces at the NUTS-3 level in Turkey according to the Life Satisfaction Survey 2013 results considering 14 indicators for personal satisfaction and 38 indicators for public services satisfaction by using FMCDM approaches that have not been applied before.