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Money buys happiness, except maybe in Spain
The five happiest countries in the world have two things in common: their all pretty far north in Europe, and money generally isn't a problem. Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands top the latest list of the world's happiest nations, due in large part, it seems, to the fact that basic needs are covered by sufficient incomes. Spain, on the other hand, ranked seventeenth of 21 European countries ... it must be the relaxed lifestyle. Gallup, which conducted the study, found that money is good for a certain kind of bliss:
"Money is an object that many or most people desire and pursue during the majority of their waking hours," researchers wrote in the report. "It would be surprising if success at this pursuit had no influence whatsoever when people were asked to evaluate their lives."
Denmark boasted a per-capital GDP of $36,000 last year, putting it ahead of 196 of the 227 countries for which the CIA collects data (don't go down the conspiracy road – it's for the agency's "World Factbook").
Now, monetary satisfaction only addresses how happy people are about future prospects. When it comes to day-to-day smiles, having basic social needs is much more important, which is why Gallup found that Costa Rica finished sixth:
So, there are two keys to happiness: being rich and being loved. How do you measure up?
[photo by dotbenjamin via Flickr]
"Costa Rica ranks really high on social and psychological prosperity," says [Jim] Harter [chief scientist at Gallup]. "It's probably things systemic to the society that make people over time develop better relationships, and put more value on relationships. Daily positive feelings rank really high there."
So, there are two keys to happiness: being rich and being loved. How do you measure up?
[photo by dotbenjamin via Flickr]
Filed under: Europe, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Costa Rica
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Laura Aug 6th 2010 3:01PM
It's always been like that. Money never bought happiness after the basic needs were covered. Many studies before this one showed it. Spanish like to complain just about everything. Maybe that's why they are not happy, because they don't know how to be happy. Sometimes when you have all you need and want you simply forget to be happy. There's alwas one more battle to be fought. http://depression-and-happiness.blogspot.com/2010/02/happiness-is-state-of-mind.html
robingraham Aug 7th 2010 11:58AM
Hard to know what to believe; Spain alway seems to score very well in "quality of life" studies, and surely that has something to do with happiness?
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