The pursuit of happiness has been a concern of humanity throughout recorded history. So Can money buy happiness ?
As humans, we are interested in gauging our own happiness as well as the happiness of those around us and even those around the globe. We can accomplish this thanks to the annual World Happiness Report, which reports on how people in more than 150 nations rate their personal lives using data from international surveys.
There are a few things that have persisted across time, yet the causes of happiness are as diverse and individual as the billions of people they affect. Family. Love. Purpose. Wealth. The latter may be studied using data-driven analysis, while the first three examples are challenging to quantify.
Wealth and happiness ( Topic : Can money buy happiness? )
We crunched the numbers using information from Credit Suisse that details the average adult wealth in various nations.
The happiness index and wealth per adult for 146 nations are shown in the table below:
There is a substantial association across the board, even though the findings do not conclusively link happiness and wealth. In general, the world’s poorest nations have the lowest happiness ratings, while the wealthy nations claim being the happiest.
Regional and Nation-Level Observations ( Topic : Can money buy happiness? )
While many of the nations exhibit a clear trend (more income equals happier people), there are exceptions and intricacies worth investigating.
People in Latin America self-report being happier than would be expected given the relationship between wealth and happiness.
On the other hand, a lot of Middle Eastern countries report slightly lower levels of contentment than one might expect given their economic status.
Lebanon performed much worse than anticipated as a result of political unrest, an economic downturn, and the horrific Beirut bomb. The nation’s score has dropped by over two full points in the last ten years.
Hong Kong’s happiness index has been declining for years. The region has been positioned in an odd zone on the map: prosperous and unhappy, as a result of inequality, protests, instability, and most recently COVID-19 outbreaks.
Inequality and Happiness: A Study
We’ve looked at how wealth and happiness differ across nations, but what about within them?
We have a tool that enables us to do that: the Gini Coefficient. This measurement assigns a score to a population after examining its income distribution. Simply put, “perfect equality” would be a score of 0, and “perfect inequality” would be a score of 1. (i.e. an individual or group of recipients is receiving the entire income distribution).
This is how nations are categorized when used in conjunction with the same happiness measure as before.
Even though this dataset cannot be used to draw a firm conclusion, there are some broad trends that deserve attention.
The 15 Countries With Highest Income Inequality ( Topic : Can money buy happiness? )
| Country | Happiness Score | Gini Score |
|---|---|---|
| South Africa | 5.2 | 0.63 |
| Namibia | 4.5 | 0.59 |
| Zambia | 3.8 | 0.57 |
| Colombia | 5.8 | 0.54 |
| Mozambique | 5 | 0.54 |
| Botswana | 3.5 | 0.53 |
| Zimbabwe | 3 | 0.5 |
| Panama | 6.3 | 0.5 |
| Costa Rica | 6.6 | 0.49 |
| Brazil | 6.3 | 0.49 |
| Guatemala | 6.3 | 0.48 |
| Honduras | 6 | 0.48 |
| Burkina Faso | 4.7 | 0.47 |
| Ecuador | 5.5 | 0.47 |
| Cameroon | 5 | 0.47 |
First, nations that record less income disparity also typically report higher levels of happiness. The average happiness score of the 15 nations in this dataset with the most inequality is 1.3 points lower than that of the 15 nations with the lowest inequality, as shown above (shown below).
The 15 Countries With Lowest Income Inequality: ( Topic : Can money buy happiness? )
| Country | Happiness Score | Gini Score |
|---|---|---|
| Slovakia | 6.4 | 23.2 |
| Belarus | 5.8 | 24.4 |
| Slovenia | 6.6 | 24.4 |
| Armenia | 5.4 | 25.2 |
| Czech Republic | 6.9 | 25.3 |
| Ukraine | 5.1 | 25.6 |
| Moldova | 5.9 | 26 |
| United Arab Emirates | 6.6 | 26 |
| Iceland | 7.6 | 26.1 |
| Belgium | 6.8 | 27.2 |
| Denmark | 7.6 | 27.7 |
| Finland | 7.8 | 27.7 |
| Norway | 7.4 | 27.7 |
| Kazakhstan | 6.2 | 27.8 |
| Croatia | 6.1 | 28.9 |
Then, intriguing geographical variations become apparent.
Many Latin American countries report levels of happiness comparable to many far wealthy European countries, despite substantial income disparity.
So , Can money buy happiness?
Since people have been trying to comprehend happiness for millennia, it seems unlikely that data analysis will be able to solve the mystery. Still, it is human nature to seek insight, just as it is to seek happiness.
And in more concrete words, the better the public and policymakers grasp the connection between wealth and happiness, the more likely it is that we can create societies that increase our chances of experiencing happiness.
