The Origins of Happiness- Income. Log GDP per head.
- Health. Healthy life expectancy (in years).
As the first column of numbers in Table 16.5 shows,
the four social variables explain an important part of the
variation of happiness across countries. The difference they
can make is substantial. For example if everyone has so-
cial support as opposed to none, the average national life-
evaluation increases by 2 points. On a scale of 0– 10 this is a
huge change. Or if we go from the lowest level of trust (7%
in Brazil) to the highest (64% in Norway) this raises average
life- satisfaction by 57% of 1.08 points— some 0.6 points.
Income also has a substantial effect, with a doubling of
average income raising happiness by 0.23 points. This is
more than is found in many individual cross- sectional com-
parisons within countries, but it is not at all consistent with
the time- series experience of many countries. For example,
average happiness has been flat in the United States, Britain,
West Germany, and Australia over many years (see Figure
Table 16.5. How average life- evaluation in a country is affected by
country- level variables (Gallup World Poll) (cross- section)Units β- coefficientsEffect on life-
evaluation (0– 10) of
specified changesTrust % 0.11 All vs. none: 1.08
Generosity % 0.07 All vs. none: 0.54
Social support % 0.20 All vs. none: 2.03
Freedom % 0.18 All vs. none: 1.41
Income log 0.38 Doubling: 0.23
Health years 0.24 One more year: 0.03