The papers in this volume were first presented in two different tracks ("assessing quality of life and living conditions to guide national policy" and "happiness, life satisfaction and subjective well-being") at the Third Conference of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies, 20-22 July 2000, Girona, Spain. Taken together the papers report in full on the 1999 round of research for the Quality of Life Trends project, the last before the new millennium.