How much money can people buy happiness?

byThe Toad

According to recent research results on happiness and money, it is said that earning a certain amount of money will affect the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in life, although the word "happiness can not be bought with money" .

Happiness, income satiation and turning points around the world | Nature Human Behavior
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0277-0

Does money buy happiness? Yes, up to a point. - Quartz
https://qz.com/1211957/how-much-money-do-people-need-to-be-happy/

This is how much money you need to earn to be happy, according to new study | The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/money-happiness-how-much-earnings-income-needed-study-perdue-university-indiana-gallup-world-poll-a8218086.html

The research team at Purdue University analyzed the answers about happiness that individual feeling as purchasing power, based on the data of "public opinion survey on life satisfaction" conducted by the U.S. opinion research institute. In the survey, I was asked to evaluate my life from 11 to 10 levels, covering over 1 million people worldwide. In the survey, the degree of happiness "0" was "the worst life as far as I could imagine", and the standard of happiness 10 "the best possible life" was established.

There seems to be a relationship between the happiness degree of the individual who answered and the annual income, "the more incomes are happier". This is the same also when analyzing considering the country, region, men and women, basically that the extent of income was connected to happiness basically worldwide.

However, the higher the income, the more happiness will be, but if the income exceeds a certain income it seems that "the cease of happiness degree" was seen. This is not the same amount of income worldwide, but also differences were seen between men and women.


By country, Australia and New Zealand have the highest "annual income with which happiness ceases", which is 125 thousand dollars (about 14 million yen). By region, the Middle East and North Africa are the highest at 115,000 dollars (about 13 million yen), with East Asia at 110,000 dollars (about 12 million yen), North America at $ 105,000 (about 11.5 million yen) It is getting. On the contrary, looking at areas where "annual income with which happiness ceases" is low, Africa in the sub-Saharan Africa is $ 40,000 (about 4,400,000 yen), around Latin America and the Caribbean around 35,000 dollars (about 3.9 million Yen) result.

The average worldwide is 95,000 dollars (about 10.5 million yen), women are more "income over which happiness ceases" than men, with an average of $ 100,000 (about 11 million yen). Men are a little lower than that and are $ 90,000 (about 10 million yen). As a reason why men are not interested in income more than women, the research team says, "Because men are more likely to recognize achievements and social status than men, it seems that satisfaction can be obtained even with less annual income than women" I am doing.

Although research results clearly correlate with happiness and annual income, it is thought that there is also an influence by the community and society about the amount of maximum happiness.

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Before the research team at Purdue University, research on the relationship between happiness and money has been conducted. In 2010Angus DaytonWith Mr.Daniel KanemannAccording to the research results released by Mr., the "annual income at which happiness ceases" in the American family was about $ 75,000 (about 8.3 million yen). In this research, Mr. Dieton and Mr. Kernemann's research, since data targets are collected not only from the United States but from all over the world, and because they are also analyzing personal data such as the number of people in the household It can be said that it further improved.

Meanwhile, at the Indiana UniversityDan SachsAssociate Professor said that this research is "a breakthrough study, but it is not decisive enough to judge the relationship between happiness and annual income by this alone." The reason is that the income declaration is completely self-declaring and the measure of happiness is very personal. "To be honest I can not convince you that people who really earn $ 150,000 (about 17 million yen) are not happier than those who earn $ 100,000 (about 11 million yen) annually. Because people with a higher annual income tend to underestimate their happiness.When I ask at happiness degree as of today, I will answer "my degree of happiness is 8" When I ask the same question again tomorrow, I can not say that I do not answer "Happiness is 7", he says.

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As a result of the cease of the research team, the reason why high-income people are harder to obtain satisfaction than those who are low-income is "because they are engaged in jobs with high income and longer stress , I am analyzing that there are few happiness that can be gained by how to spend my hobbies and leisure time. "

Although we can not affirm "saying that happiness can be bought with money", this research suggests that there is at least a certain relationship.