Who's Happy And Why?

There is an avalanche of new research in the areas of success and happiness. Perhaps the leading light in this field is Dr. Martin Seligman, a University of Pennsylvania research psychologist, who has boiled down true happiness to three components: pleasure (things that feel good), involvement (being immersed in things like family, work, and hobbies), and meaning (using personal strengths to serve a larger end).

Of the three, Seligman says, pleasure (the one most closely linked to material gain) is the least consequential, a finding that has been reaffirmed in numerous follow-up studies worldwide. For example, studies by Dr. Ruut Veenhoven, a sociologist at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, show that the extremely poor -- those earning less than $10,000 a year -- may be rendered unhappy by the relentless stress of poverty. Yet his work shows that after a poor person's income exceeds that level there is no further correlation between money and happiness. After a certain level of income, typically enough to meet basic expenses, money ceases to be a factor.

Money and happiness, it seems, really do not go hand in hand -- at least not in the manner you would expect. The World Database of Happiness presents one of the most interesting examinations into whether or not money buys happiness. This database is an ongoing register of scientific research on the subjective enjoyment of life. The scores are based on responses to a question about satisfaction with life and perceptions of personal well-being, the answers to which were rated on a numerical scale ranging from dissatisfied to satisfied. Rating scales ranged from 0 to 10.

As you can see from the following list, when you place each country's GDP per capita (in current U.S. dollars), there is not very much correlation between how much money people make and how happy they feel. For example, Guatemalans have the same happiness score as Canadians, although their income is only one-eighth as much. What does tend to reliably correlate with happiness is the quality of relationships with family and friends and a personal sense of belonging to one's community.

Ranking	Country	Score	National GDP Per Capita
1	Denmark	8.2	$37,400
2	Colombia	8.1	$6,700
3	Switzerland	8.1	$41,100
4	Austria	8.0	$38,400
5	Iceland	7.8	$38,800
6	Australia	7.7	$36,300
7	Finland	7.7	$35,300
8	Sweden	7.7	$36,500
9	Canada	7.6	$38,400
10	Guatemala	7.6	$4,700
11	Ireland	7.6	$43,100
12	Luxembourg	7.6	$80,500
13	Mexico	7.6	$12,800
14	Norway	7.6	$53,000
15	Netherlands	7.5	$38,500
16	Malta	7.5	$22,900
17	United States	7.4	$45,800
18	Belgium	7.3	$35,300
19	El Salvador	7.2	$5,800
20	New Zealand	7.2	$26,400
21	Germany	7.2	$34,200
22	United Kingdom	7.1	$35,100
23	Honduras	7.1	$4,100
24	Kuwait	7.0	$39,300
25	Saudi Arabia	7.0	$23,200
26	Cyprus	6.9	$27,400
27	Italy	6.9	$30,400
28	Spain	6.9	$30,100
29	Argentina	6.8	$13,300
30	Brazil	6.8	$9,700
31	Dominican Republic	6.8	$7,000
32	Singapore	6.8	$49,700
33	Venezuela	6.8	$12,200
34	Chile	6.7	$13,900
35	Israel	6.7	$25,800
36	Slovenia	6.7	$27,200
37	Uruguay	6.7	$11,600
38	Indonesia	6.6	$3,700
39	France	6.5	$33,200
40	Czech Republic	6.4	$24,200
41	Greece	6.4	$29,200
42	Nigeria	6.4	$2,000
43	Philippines	6.4	$3,400
44	China	6.3	$5,300
45	India	6.2	$2,700
46	Japan	6.2	$33,600
47	Taiwan	6.2	$30,100
48	Uzbekistan	6.2	$2,300
49	Kyrgyzstan	6.1	$2,000
50	Vietnam	6.1	$2,600
51	Iran	6.0	$10,600
52	Peru	6.0	$7,800
53	Portugal	6.0	$21,700
54	Croatia	5.9	$15,500
55	Poland	5.9	$16,300
56	Bolivia	5.8	$4,000
57	Korea, South	5.8	$24,800
58	Bangladesh	5.7	$1,300
59	Senegal	5.7	$1,700
60	Hungary	5.6	$19,000
61	Morocco	5.6	$4,100
62	Montenegro	5.5	$3,800
63	Slovakia	5.5	$20,300
64	South Africa	5.5	$9,800
65	Lebanon	5.3	$11,300
66	Algeria	5.2	$6,500
67	Jordan	5.2	$4,900
68	Kenya	5.2	$1,700
69	Turkey	5.2	$12,900
70	Bosnia/Herzegovina	5.1	$7,000
71	Estonia	5.1	$21,100
72	Serbia	5.1	$10,400
73	Uganda	5.1	$900
74	Romania	5.0	$11,400
75	Azerbaijan	4.9	$7,700
76	Macedonia	4.9	$8,500
77	Mali	4.9	$1,000
78	Egypt	4.8	$5,500
79	Ghana	4.8	$1,400
80	Iraq	4.7	$3,600
81	Latvia	4.7	$17,400
82	Lithuania	4.6	$17,700
83	Albania	4.4	$6,300
84	Angola	4.4	$5,600
85	Russia	4.4	$14,700
86	Pakistan	4.3	$2,600
87	Bulgaria	4.2	$11,300
88	Georgia	4.1	$4,700
89	Belarus	4.0	$10,900
90	Armenia	3.7	$4,900
91	Ukraine	3.6	$6,900
92	Moldova	3.5	$2,900
93	Zimbabwe	3.3	$200
94	Tanzania	3.2	$1,300

Consider this: in surveys such as this one, the impoverished people of Calcutta, India, living in crude shacks and with little access to clean water, register about even with Americans on the happiness scale -- and well ahead of the Chinese, South Koreans, and Japanese. Meanwhile, relatively poor Puerto Ricans and Columbians, appear to be among the happiest people on the globe.

But underlying these thought-provoking results is the simple fact that more is not necessarily better when it comes to enjoying life and feeling satisfied. More may be more, but it is never enough. We're caught up in the myth that by achieving and going up the ladder and having more stuff we'll feel full inside. Yet it isn't so.

Some years ago I was helping Jimmy Carter gather his thoughts for his book Virtues of Aging, and at one point I said to him, "President Carter, I have a crazy question for you. I'm about the age now that you were when you were president. Have you come to any new perspectives about what matters in life, now that you're older?" His answer was to the point: "Earlier in my life I thought the things that mattered were the things that you could see, like your car, your house, your wealth, your property, your office. But as I've grown older I've become convinced that the things that matter most are the things that you can't see -- the love you share with others, your inner purpose, your comfort with who you are."

So here's the thing. At the end of the day, it may be wisest to judge each of our own life successes not from the outside looking in but from the inside out. It's not about the material things I can show the world, but about how I feel about the work I do; it's about the relationships I have and the love I share.

It may well be, as novelist Edith Wharton said, that "if only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time."

Adapted from With Purpose: Going From Success to Significance in Work and Life by Ken Dychtwald Ph.D. and Daniel J. Kadlec (Collins Life 3/09).

Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D. is a psychologist, gerontologist and author of sixteen books on aging, life transitions, and retirement-related issues including Age Wave, The Power Years, and his new book, With Purpose: Going from Success to Significance in Work and Life (with Daniel J. Kadlec, Collins Life; 3/09). The founding CEO of Age Wave, he lives with his wife and children in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Comments

[DrJenniferHoward]

Thank you Ken. Yes, happiness is an inside job. Us folks in the helping professions get to see this everyday. As a psychotherapist, personal development expert and spiritual teacher, I find Dr. Martin Seligman’s work is such a pleasure to read.

In our society, we are overly focused on “achieving wealth and fame”. Filling up the internal holes from the outside is the underpinning for much unhappiness such as addiction. Having goals are great but are only fulfilling as they relate to our life’s purpose. I would say that if people feel meaning in their lives many other things fall into place on the happiness scale.

Keep up your great work Ken and a pleasure to connect with you here on Huffington Post.

Dr. Jennifer Howard
http://www.DrJenniferHoward.com

[DamaskinosLives]

Gross National Happiness ( GNH ) should get as much attention as Gross National Product ( GNP ).

[BipesImplumis]

I like the idea of this article, but wishful think still wouldn't make me draw the same conclusion based on the chart that you've published. The whole story is seems to 'want' to say that money doesn't buy us happiness—that eternal chestnut—but when you look at the figures there's no way that you can argue that the general trend proves that. With a couple of happy exceptions the top of the happy-chart is still heavily weighted towards the richer countries, and the bottom is poorer. We can only draw the conclusion that money doesn't grant happiness per se, but the statistics would illustrate that the chances are high that it does.

[MarcOromaner]

I agree with the conclusion of this study but not the method. What does one country's wealth in comparison to another have to do with how rich or poor a person feels? If you are a nomad with 100 goats, you may be the richest person in your tribe, and feel rich and happy, but you would be considered poor in another country. The study they SHOULD do is how rich or poor people feel within cities where rich and poor live in relatively close proximity so they can see how the other half lives.

More telling about this study is that the happier counties all live in better environments and less happy countries live in harsher, more polluted ones. The counties toward the top of the list also tend to have cultures that are more relaxed and democratic. In short, much more research is needed to support the assumptions made by this study. I'm sure you'll find that millionaires are much more likely to be happy than those living in poverty. Money may not buy happiness, but those who've earned it are more likely to have a satisfaction with life not felt by those who struggle just to get by. So don't let this study coax you into a false sense of satisfaction that being rich ain't what it's cracked up to be...even though that notion may be comforting to a lot of us right now. Feel rich first, the material part will follow.

[Star2000dancer]

I'm happiest on Islands, the water and in the sun. I've been stranded in Buffalo, NY & see no way out.. I lost most of my family & friends to death. Misdiagnosous alone kills over 1000 people a day. Me doctor died, so I had to go to an HNO doctor for a refill. He refuse, change the script I was almost weaned off, and almost killed me.
My mom was wronglt hospice & I was thrown out of the hospital for pulling her out the 1st time. He last words to me was "make them stop!" The dental & medical University of Buffalo kept my teeth like jewels. My professor died. I need an extreme makeover now. They tore mt perfect mouth th shreds, then threw me out. The bone is ost & myskin started sagging, but I'm now broke & on disability & need over $30,000.00 just for the teeth. Geico refused the trheapy I needed, so now I'm in pain 24/7 & on meds. My family never needed meds.
I ca'nt afford glasses, a car, a smile, chewing healthy food & no dating. From the pearl of the world's oyster to poverty, completely alone, & in pain that could be fixed.
I wish someone would take me, heal me like I did so many others, & use me to help others. Extreme makeover, where are you? Now I need help & it's hard when you were the one that was the helper.

[Star2000dancer]

I'm a problem solver. I'm a mensen, a fitness consultant, athlete, pro pool player, diver, healer, teacher, motivator, supported everyone who ever needed it, run to people that need a hand up. Now I've been bashed & broken. Now there's NO ONE that can even begin to help me. In fact if I told you my story, I have yet to have one person be able to even begin to help me.
Not to mention it seems like people have changed & become cold & calloused. If they're happy, they could care less about you. I use to love to share my happiness, it made me even happier. Now I have not one person left that would give me a hand up to get me back on my feet. I still do not regret sharing everything I had for one minute.

[Star2000dancer]

It's amazing how fast you can go from "The world is my oyster and I am it's pearl" to Broken, battered & abused just by getting injured when you have not one person to help you. I need a hero like Ben & the Ponderosa in Bonanza. Are there any heroes left out there?

[dotsthefunist]

Barbara Constantine said it so well " I am so hip it hurts"

[RoadCrossingChicken]

I read a book about the US when people were just beginning to move westward. A man who had lived in the west came back east and people were always asking him how it was "out west"... were the people nice, did they help one another, were the people who had moved there happy or miserable.
He would ask them a question, "What is life like for you here?" If they answered, "Life can be hard, but for the most part life is good. It all depends on what you yourself put into it." The man would answer, "You will find the west is just the same way."
If the person answered, "Life is not worth living. People are miserable. They are not worth a dime." The man would give the same answer as before, "You will find the west is just the same way."

One reason why some people are so miserable all the time is that they cannot get rid of the person who is making them miserable... themselves.

Hardship does not necessarily mean unhappiness and material comforts do not necissarily mean happiness.

[OdysseusNemesis]

I am wondering in which season(s) -- spring, summer, autumn, winter -- the survey was conducted.
(Other things being equal) People are generally happiest in the summer and saddest in the winter period.

[Jonahson]

The yard stick for measuring happinesss is contentment and not $$$. Many years ago I happened to attend a talk given by a Buddhist monk who had just returned from Myanmar(Burma). The international call for Aung San Suu Kyi had already begun and Myanmar was under sanction. We expect to hear about poverty and starvation but to our surprise the meditation Monk said that the countryside life was a hapy lot. Politics and sanctions meant nothing to them. People who do not own cars and tv were just happy with what they have. They were simply contented. Their riches is in the thousands of golden gilded pagodas all over their land.
Of course when you move to lrge town and near the borders things are different.
That reminds me of the beautiful African documentary "The Gods Must Be Crazy" .
How some Bush people in Africa was living peacefully until someone threw a coca cola bottle from a plane and landed in front of them. At first it was useful, they could grind their grains, help them tan skins but it became a source of discontentment when the fought posession over it. It can be used as a weapon over the head also! Thus began the journey of a Bushman to return this unwanted present to the owner.

[ModernTimes1]

The Gods Must Be Crazy" was not a documentary. It was a fiction. Surprised you didn't notice it.
Regardless, progress is a double-edged sword. Just as 'back to the forests' utopias.

[Jonahson]

Thanks for reminding me I must have mixed up with the other one, "Beautiful People" .

[Ohioan730]

I'm surprised that Botswana wasn't on the list. I keep hearing that its the happiest country in Africa. When you research their stats, it seems to be true. Botswana was never a colony of Britain but only a protectorate because Britain didn't believe the mostly desert land-locked territory was worth anything. In the 60s, they became a free and independent democracy and shortly afterward, discovered their diamond mines (luckily after the Brits were gone) so Botswana benefits from the diamond mine profits and I think some mines are privately owned (capitalism! *gasp*). The GDP per capita is a little higher than Mexico, Turkey and Poland (or maybe the same). They have their problems and the biggest one is HIV but the opportunities are plentiful and women are free. Their economy grows about 9% a year and they have been doing better and better as the years pass. They have a lovely tourism board and wonderful attractions for visitors. They are very formal and call each other by last name. Other than that, it seems like paradise.

[ConfuciusSay-]

According to the survey cited, my little island has a happiness rating of 7/10, on par with Kuwait & Saudi Arabia. That's not bad.

Things that make me happy - exercising with my dogs, re-reading exceptionally good books, and just talking with my wife and daughter.

Simpler things seem to work better. I could buy a new computer game, struggle with it and end up wasting time, or practise martial arts forms with a simple 6 foot stick. The stick never fails, needs a patch, hangs up, has a power failure, or requires me to buy more hardware and make backups. It never becomes obsolete, never grows incompatible with the latest OS. The more I use it, the stronger, faster fitter and better I become.

[nelgom]

Hey, I am Colombian and for the most part people are very happy with their lives. Yes, there is a lot of poverty and complaining but if you come to Medellín you will find that people smile a lot.

[Ohioan730]

I can believe that. It seems like fun is to be had no matter where people are. I saw a doc about women in prison who have a full-on beauty pageant with swimsuit competitions and evening gowns and talent. I was gobsmacked, as they say in England. The prison staff fully supported it and all the women were enthusiastic even though they were locked up. Women in the USA would be too busy fighting in jail.

[Ohioan730]

The beauty pageant documentary was in a Colombian womens prison, I forgot to mention.

[DamaskinosLives]

The cannabis there is fantastic too....

[huffpostcommentator]

Interesting. However, I am a bit skeptical of the results (I'd like to know the exact methods/questions/demographics used). The numbers give a very broad view of happiness. Immediately jumping to the conclusion that family ties and acceptance in the community are keys to happiness is like saying that since over 50% of marriages end up in divorce in this country then you are better off not marrying at all. It's like watching the landscape from an airplane. It will be interesting to see the finer details of this issue such as:

(i) Are the happy uneducated and/or poor people happy just because they happen to be ignorant and we all know that ignorance is bliss anyway? What happens when people get more educated...do they become happier or not?

(ii) How is happiness distributed within rich democratic countries? Within poor democratic ones? Within rich UNdemocratic ones like Saudi Arabia? Within poor UNdemocratic ones?

(iii) How does happiness change over the course of peoples' lives in these various settings?

(iv) Does "acceptance within one's community" mean being like everyone else in that community or does it mean that the community cherishes and encourages individuality i.e. being able to express yourself in ways unique to yourself? Remember that being openly gay and having other progressive viewpoints is generally not accepted outside the western democratic countries.

(v) How does religion influence happiness?

(vi) Are there (there HAVE to be) genetic factors that influence how happy you will be?