Countries with the highest and lowest cost of happiness, ranked
It’s not what you earn; it’s the way that you spend it — that’s what leads to happiness.
So claim the authors of a Harvard-affiliated study that proposed eight principles to “help consumers get more happiness for their money.” Eight principles that begin with “(1) buy more experiences and fewer material goods” and end with “(8) pay close attention to the happiness of others.”
Whether these techniques work or not, they add an important sense of quotidian nuance to what has become a rather academic debate about how much money you need to be happy.
Notice that this ancient question is now framed not as “Can money make you happy?” but “How much to make you happy?” A 2010 study by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton drew the line under the first question. Kahneman and Deaton concluded that a greater income equals a greater objective sense of accomplishment and that money boosts emotional well-being — but only up to an annual income of $75,000 or so per individual (not per household). Beyond that, extra dollars do not equal extra happiness.
Kahneman’s study was based on U.S. survey responses. But a 2018 study from Purdue University identified a similar “satiation point” of $60–75,000 as a global average, based on Gallup World Poll figures from over 1.7 million people in 164 countries.
Crucially, the Purdue researchers found that “there was substantial variation across world regions, with satiation occurring later in wealthier regions for life satisfaction.” The researchers believed that this data could help individuals to reassess their personal values and ambitions, employers to compensate employees at more appropriate rates and governments to better legislate towards fair wealth distribution.
But for a more practical, day-to-day look at how money might affect happiness, S Money decided to convert the Purdue study’s figures back into their local currencies — this time, allowing for purchasing power and the local cost of living. Because if what you buy shapes your happiness as much as how much you earn, then your happiness per dollar depends greatly on where in the world you’re spending it.
