Living a life is a journey that everyone is a part of. Everyone lives his or her life in their way, and people have their perspectives of living life and a different thought process.
There are several different life concepts to know how well a person is living his or her life. Lifestyle and standard of living are two such concepts that are used to determine how well a person lives his or her life.
Key Takeaways
- Lifestyle encompasses an individual’s habits, interests, values, and daily activities, while the standard of living refers to wealth, comfort, and material goods available to a person or society.
- Lifestyle is shaped by personal choices, preferences, and priorities, whereas economic factors, such as income, employment, and access to resources, influence the standard of living.
- A high standard of living does not guarantee a fulfilling lifestyle, as individual well-being depends on material, emotional, and social factors.
Lifestyle vs Standard of Living
The difference between lifestyle and standard of living is that a person’s lifestyle is used to describe how a person lives his or her life, including all aspects. On the other hand, the standard of living of a person majorly describes the economic aspect of his or her life.
Lifestyle is a word that describes a person’s way of living. Every person’s lifestyle can vary depending upon the different aspects of living a life.
Some major aspects of a person’s lifestyle are mental, health, social, emotional, and more.
The standard of living of a person explains the financial and economic wealth of a person. Just like the lifestyle, the standard of living can also vary from person to person.
The factors which are included in the standard of living majorly include financial wealth, the income of the person, GDP, and more.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of comparison | Lifestyle | Standard of living |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | The lifestyle of a person describes how that person lives his or her life. | The standard of living of a person describes how financially good that person is. |
| Aspects | Lifestyles include all aspects of living a life. | The standard of living includes the economical aspect only. |
| Association | Lifestyle is associated with the quality of life. | The standard of life is associated with the welfare of the person. |
| Factors | The lifestyle of a person can get affected by external factors. | The standard of living of a person cannot be affected by external factors. |
| Types | Lifestyle is of two types, that is, a healthy lifestyle, and a poor lifestyle. | The standard of living is also of two types, that is, high standard of living and low standard of living. |
What is a Lifestyle?
Lifestyle explains how a particular person deals with all the aspects of lifestyle. Depending upon how a person deals with these aspects of life, the lifestyle can be divided into 2 different types.
The 2 different types of lifestyle are a healthy lifestyle and a poor lifestyle.
A healthy lifestyle is when a person deals with the aspects of life in the way they are ideally supposed to be dealt with.
That is to say, a person having a healthy lifestyle has good mental health, physical health, emotional health, and all other forms of a healthy body.
Moreover, that person is socially aware, has good social connections with the people living around him, and respects himself or herself and the opinions of others.
A person leading a healthy lifestyle has a good reputation in society and is always positive towards problems.
On the other hand, a person who has a poor lifestyle might live one or more aspects of life in which they are not supposed to be dealt with. That is to say, a person living a poor lifestyle might not be physically fit or mentally fit.
That person might have either bad social connections with people or no social connections at all.
What is the Standard of Living?
The standard of living of a person is the degree to how strong a person is in terms of economic and financial condition. Depending upon the factors which are included in the standard of living, it can differ for each person.
However, on a general basis, the standard of living is divided into 2 different types. The 2 categories of the standard of living are high standard of living and low standard of living.
A person with a high standard of living has strong financial health and higher economic value than an average person. As a result, that person might also have a higher reputation in society as compared to others.
On the other hand, a person with a low living standard has lower financial health and economic value.
Apart from that, the standard of living of a person can also be determined by identifying the geographical location of a person.
For example, people living in the United States and the United Kingdom tend to have a higher standard of living than those in other countries.
Main Differences Between Lifestyle and Standard of Living
- The lifestyle of a person is not determined by comparing it to society. On the contrary, the standard of living of a person is determined by comparing it to society.
- A person’s lifestyle includes factors such as thoughts, emotions, feelings, interests, needs, habits, and more. Whereas, the standard of living of a person includes factors like net worth, income, savings, and more.
- A healthy lifestyle can be maintained by any type of person. Whereas, a high standard of living is maintained by upper-class people only.
- A poor lifestyle can be maintained by any type of person. Whereas, generally, lower-class people have a low standard of living.
- Lifestyle is not dependent upon the geographical location of a person. On the other hand, the standard of living of a person is dependent upon the geographical location of a person.
- https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BZnNJUulONcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR6&dq=standard+of+living&ots=K4N2E9hOeA&sig=smgvAm6O9TbvK90Vz-qcT0rblVw
- https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.14.1.7
Last Updated : 26 July, 2023
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
