We’ve all heard the saying “money can’t buy you happiness”, but how true really is it?
Keen to answer this age-old question, researchers compared the happiness index scores of different countries to the average salary, number of billionaires, and life expectancies, in a bid to find out once and for all if money truly can buy you happiness…
The study determined that there was a significant positive correlation (0.68) between average salary and happiness score, meaning that the data suggests money does in fact buy happiness.
Positive correlation was also shown between average salary and life expectancy (0.67), as well as between life expectancy and happiness (0.66).
Finland was revealed to be the country with the highest happiness score, with an overall score of 7.80.
Finland also ranked within the top third for average salary and life expectancy across all 60 countries compared within the study.
Google searches for “living in Finland” are up 50% worldwide over the past year, proving there is a growing appetite for this way of life.
Following closely behind, boasting a happiness score of 7.59, was another Nordic country; Denmark.
The country’s average salary (£2,867.82) was the 6th highest across the whole study, and the Danes also rank in the top half for life expectancy and number of billionaires.
Whilst placing third for its total happiness score of 7.40, is the Netherlands.
The only non-Nordic country ranking within the top five, across all of the 60 countries compared as part of the study, the Netherlands boasts the 7th highest average salary (£2,738.62) and the 16th highest life expectancy (82.58).
With an overall happiness score of 4.04, India was revealed to be the least happy country in the study.
India ranked 7th lowest for life expectancy.
The study was conducted by CasinoTop3
