Researchers found out how much money is needed for happiness to residents of different countries

Happiness is, of course, a subjective and multifaceted concept. But one of its components - material well-being - can still be measured in concrete figures, which was done during a scientific experiment conducted by American psychologists. It turned out that residents of different countries have different assessments of the level of material well-being, at which there is a feeling of happiness, while the specific amount may differ several times.

The study involved 1,700,000 people from more than 160 countries around the world whose age exceeded 15 years. Scientists analyzed data from opinion polls conducted by the Gallup Institute, in which respondents were asked to name the desired level of financial well-being, which they associate with a sense of happiness. It turned out that the desired amount differs not only among people from different social strata and with different levels of education, which is quite logical, but also among citizens of different countries. In addition, it turned out that men and women also differently assess the desired level of material well-being.

For example, the highest requirements for the level of material well-being were found among Australian citizens. Residents of this country believe that they need about 125 thousand dollars a year, or a little more than 10 thousand dollars a month, to feel subjective happiness. The countries of Western Europe, the USA and Canada announced about the same amount of desired income - 100-105 thousand dollars a year. At the same time, researchers note that residents of Eastern Europe are more moderate in their feelings of material happiness - they only need 45 thousand dollars of annual income. The most modest were the Latin Americans, who are quite enough 35 thousand dollars for the same period.

In addition to analyzing the inhabitants of different countries, scientists compared the financial wishes of people with various backgrounds. And if citizens who did not have secondary education would be happy with only 70 thousand dollars a year, then people who spent time, effort and money to get higher education, wished to have an income of at least 115 thousand dollars a year. No less curious are the differences between men and women. In fact, the difference is not as impressive as one might think. The average woman needs only 10 thousand dollars a year more than men, who are quite happy with the amount of 90 thousand dollars a year.

In Russia, a public opinion poll was also conducted on the desired income, which was organized by researchers of the SuperJob service in November 2018. Here, the analysts were interested in the amount of the desired income, as well as the regional affiliation of the respondents, or rather the specific location, since the study involved only residents of large Russian cities with a population of more than 0.5 million people. It turned out that the residents of Vladivostok, who wished to have 208 thousand rubles a month, had the highest requirements for material wealth. If you translate this amount into dollars and calculate the annual income, you get about 38 thousand dollars. The residents of the Russian capital voiced about the same amount, but respondents from St. Petersburg wished to earn about 160 thousand rubles a month (or about 29.5 thousand dollars a year). Well, least of all, for happiness, residents of Orenburg and Naberezhnye Chelny need it. Representatives of these cities voiced the amount of 116 thousand rubles per month, which is equivalent to 21 thousand dollars.