省籍是1980年代台灣的重要政治社會議題，省籍差異和國家認同的糾葛被視為台灣社會深層矛盾。有別於社會分層文獻，本文將1980年代以降族群論述的升溫視為前導的社會政治脈絡，假設大多數民眾的族群／省籍身分已被喚醒，因而1999年至2012年間民眾的幸福感，是自身族群／省籍受到大時代族群政治論述洗禮的效應之一。本文使用社會意向調查，檢驗社會分層、我群意識和公平感受三個研究假設，主要發現有三：經歷過兩次政黨輪替的台灣，民眾的幸福感是一路下滑，只是下滑的勁道趨緩。第二，閩南人的幸福感顯著高於原住民和外省人，但和客家人沒有差別。閩南人在這14年間的趨勢與客家、原住民和外省人都有顯著差別，各群體與閩南人之間的差異在2006年後先後縮短。第三，教育程度、家戶所得、我群意識和公平感受可提昇幸福感。這四個因素可以全然解釋原住民之幸福感何以落後閩南人。但除了公平感受外，其他因素都無法有力解釋外省人的幸福感何以落後閩南人。

Ethnicity has long been one of the most sensitive sociopolitical issues in Taiwan. This study examines ethnic differences in happiness as a psycho-social outcome of the intensely ethnic discourse in Taiwanese politics since the 1980s. It also tests the hypotheses of class stratification, group solidarity, and perceived social justice by pooling the 1999-2012 Social Image Surveys. There are three major findings: (1) The overall level of happiness has declined, moving from being happy to being unhappy. (2) There were significant differences in happiness between Minnan and Aborigine and between Minnan and Mainlander, but not between Minnan and Hakka. Ethnicity differences have narrowed since 2006 and persistent after the second change in the ruling party. (3) Education, family income, sense of we-group, and sense of fairness accounted for the differentials between Minnan and aboriginals in happiness. In contrast, such factors did not account for the gap between Minnan and Mainlanders.