Adults who self-identify as being in the upper or upper-middle class are generally happier, healthier and more satisfied with their jobs than are those in the middle or lower classes.
The super-rich are slightly happier than the rich.
In other words, the super-rich are slightly happier at extreme levels of wealth. The $1-$2 millionaires reported a 7.8 out of 10 happiness whereas the $10+ multimillionaires came in just above an 8.0 out of 10.
While the results don't definitively point to wealth contributing to happiness, there is a strong correlation across the board. Broadly speaking, the world's poorest countries have the lowest happiness scores, and the richest report being the most happy.
“In the simplest terms, this suggests that for most people larger incomes are associated with greater happiness,” Killingsworth said in a statement about the study. “The exception is people who are financially well-off but unhappy.
Social Class and Emotional Well-Being
Lower class individuals also experience more intense and recurring negative affect, including anxiety and depression (e.g., Gallo & Matthews, 2003). Lower class individuals, it would seem, experience less positive emotion and happiness.
Yet the frequency of certain feelings varied with social class. Top earners experienced more self-oriented positive emotions, such as pride, contentment, and amusement. The lowest earners reported more other-oriented emotions, including awe, love, and compassion. The groups recorded similar levels of enthusiasm.
Upper-class adults are also happier and healthier than those in the middle and lower classes. Four-in-ten upper-class adults (42%) say they are very happy with their lives overall.
Having lower income was associated with higher prevalence of depressive symptoms. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 39.3% for participants with family income under $20,000, 25.5% for participants with family income from $20,000–$75,000, and 14.9% for participants with family income greater than $75,000.
Billionaires love what they do. They enjoy their business and the industry they're in. Naturally, this makes you happier than having to do what you don't like. And billionaires are free in the sense that they work not because they have to, but because they like doing it and find it important.
New research suggests most millionaires don't feel more financially secure than the rest of us. Once viewed as the ultimate milestone in wealth creation, millionaire status is losing some of its luster, at least among wealthy Americans.
Once you hit an annual household income of $75,000 (£62,000), earning more money didn't make you any happier. In 2021, the happiness researcher Matthew Killingsworth released a dissenting study, showing that happiness increased with income and there wasn't evidence of a plateau.
Research shows that wealthy countries do experience higher rates of depression, Marcum says. Also, children of wealthy parents may have a higher chance of developing mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. However, the reasons for the higher rates aren't clear.
Wealth and Happiness
On several occasions, research has shown that people living in poverty report lower life satisfaction, lower subjective well-being and lower levels of positive emotion. Even the World Happiness Index ranks the high-income countries as the happiest.
“One of the key drivers of people's desire for wealth (and material possessions) is the innate human tendency to compare ourselves to others – and to try to win,” Norton said. According to entrepreneur and author of The Unlikely Entrepreneur Alan Manly, ambition is one of the keys to business success.
The Boston studies have consistently found respondents to be a generally dissatisfied lot, whose vast fortunes have contributed to deep anxieties involving love, work, and family. They are often even dissatisfied with the size of their fortunes.
Being Driven by Freedom
Financial freedom, personal freedom, having control over your life– these are all types of freedoms billionaires seek to help them find motivation. Oftentimes, freedom is one of their main drives right from the get to go.
How much would you need to feel rich? More than 2,500 US adults said they would need to earn, on average, $233,000 a year to feel financially secure and $483,000 annually to feel rich or to attain financial freedom, according to a new survey from Bankrate.
While the wealthy have the funds to improve their lifestyles, which in turn improves their chances of a longer life they generally also have a positive mindset. Their positivity means that they often have less stress in their life. Admittedly they don't have to worry about money as much as the poor either.
But new data shows they may find happiness earning far less. A salary of $94,696, on average, would make Americans happy, according to a new survey of over 1,200 people from Moneyzine.com. Earning a salary smaller than six figures isn't enough for everyone, though, especially in states with higher costs of living.
Imposter syndrome and guiltiness. This frequently happens to people who were born wealthy or who believe they did not work hard enough to earn their wealth. They think they did not deserve to be rich in the first place. Even if others treat them well, they may feel stressed, anxious, and depressed.
Rich countries tend to have greater income disparities between the very rich and very poor, which could play a role in the development of depression, the researchers said. It's also possible that the study underestimated depression rates in low- and middle-income countries, the researchers said.
Money may create some of those feelings, but wealth also frequently causes anxiety and pressure to make good financial decisions about how it is invested, spent, gifted, or used to create a legacy. Below are the main reasons high net worth households worry about money and a few insights about what to do about it.
According to a study published in the Social Indicators Research journal, we're the happiest between the ages of 30-34, and midlife (our 40s and 50s) is not perceived as the least happy period in life.
In one large study from the Brookings Institute, for example, scientists found happiness was high for 18- to 21-year-olds and then dropped steadily until about age 40. But past middle age, the pattern began to reverse—gradually climbing back up to its highest point at age 98!
For the sixth year in a row, Finland is the world's happiest country, according to World Happiness Report rankings based largely on life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll.