Nairobi — Most young people are not satisfied with their achievements in life, a new survey has revealed.

About seven million youth who were just leaving college and those who had just started working expressed the highest dissatisfaction with their lives.

The research by Kenyatta University says Kenyans had "an illusion of higher achievement and are highly influenced by the media."

Feeling of under-achievement is further compounded by lack of opportunities to advance oneself, besides having good academic papers.

But residents of Nairobi would be surprised to learn that people living in North Eastern province -- the country's driest region -- had a higher quality of life.

Most Kenyans regard having good health, adequate income, education and food security, in that order, as pointers for high quality life.

The study by KU's sociology department further says family, security, career, friends and a clean environment were other factors for quality living.

The study was jointly sponsored by the Retirement Benefits Authority and Equity Bank, to establish what indicators of quality life Kenyans had, and to determine the level of satisfaction in their lives.

But interestingly, the findings noted that most Kenyans did not consider leisure, holidays or material wealth as contributing immensely to a quality life.

When all key indicators of quality life that respondents gave were analysed, holiday and leisure came at the bottom of the list.

Department head, Dr Lucy Maina, said Kenyans associate leisure with tourism, viewed as a foreign reserve.

Further, the researchers found that residents of North Eastern Province recorded the highest satisfaction with the overall quality of life.

"For instance, unlike in Nairobi where you don't know the name of your next door neighbour, the people there led a better social life," she added.

It was followed by Rift Valley and Eastern province.

The researchers said insecurity in Nairobi was to blame for a lack of quality life among the residents.

But she explained that satisfaction with life was "a multi-dimensional concept that involves looking at many factors to finally arrive at the results."