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90 Examples of Human Needs

John Spacey, updated on April 11, 2024

Human needs are tangible and intangible things that sustain and enrich the life of a person. These are commonly arranged in a hierarchy of needs that include physiological needs, safety needs, belonging & love, esteem, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, self-actualization and transcendence. This is a useful conceptual structure but arguably includes questionable assumptions. For example, Maslow's hierarchy of needs categorizes financial security as a type of safety such that it is viewed as a more basic need than things like friendship and family. This feels like a judgement call. The following are examples of human needs in an unstructured format.

Acceptance	Access to Outdoors & Natural Environments
Accomplishments	Aesthetic Life
Affection	Air
Bodily Integrity & Personal Sovereignty	Clean Air, Water & Environments
Clothes	Comfort
Community	Creative Expression
Cultural Life	Dignity
Doing Good	Emotional Development
Emotional Experiences	Emotional Safety
Empathy	Entertainment
Epic Experience	Exercise
Existence	Family
Financial Security	Free Assembly & Association
Free Expression of Ideas	Freedom
Friendship	Going to Bathroom
Growth	Health
Hygiene	Imagination
Independence	Information
Intimacy	Joy
Justice	Know-how
Knowledge	Life Experience
Light	Love
Mastery	Moral & Ethical Behavior
Movement	Music, Art & Literature
Parenting	Personal Reflection
Personal Security	Personal Space
Physical Intimacy	Play
Political Participation	Prestige
Privacy	Pursuit of Happiness & Goals
Recognition	Relatedness
Reputation	Resilience
Respect	Responsibility
Romance	Romantic Partnerships
Safety	Self-Realization
Sex	Shelter
Skills	Sleep
Social Acceptance	Social Belonging
Social Bonding	Social Interaction
Social Roles	Social Stability
Social Status	Spirituality & Religion
Talents	Temperate Environment
Thinking	Touch
Transcendence	Trust
Understanding	Water
Wellness	Work & Productive Life

Needs vs Wants

Needs are core motivations. Wants are things that we feel will fulfill needs. As such, these are essentially different manifestations of the same thing. You need food and you want breakfast cereal. It is common for educational materials to present needs as essential and wants as non-essential whereby they rank needs and claim that some are more important than others. This tends to produce questionable claims whereby one human need is presented as essential and another as non-essential by labeling it as a want. For example, school worksheets for children that claim that friendship is a want and a job and car is a need.

Summary

Human needs are things that a person needs to survive and to feel fulfilled in life. This ranges from basic survival needs such as the need for water up to high level social, cognitive and spiritual needs. These high level needs are inherently personal whereby people have different perspectives on what they need from the human experience and life.

90 Examples of Human Needs

Needs vs Wants

Summary

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