New data reveals Brits need to earn a salary of £33,864 to be happy!
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A new study by Raisin UK has revealed the cost of happiness across the country and the world. According to data from ONS the score of happiness in the UK is 7.3/10 meaning Brits are overall quite satisfied with life.
The data answers a life long question, does money buy happiness? The answer, well yes it does.
The savings expert analysed data from ONS personal well-being reports and the Happy Planet Index to reveal the cities in the UK where money can buy you happiness and how much you need to earn to buy that happiness.
They then analysed the same factors across the world to discover the happiest country and the amount of money needed to be happy there.
Winchester is THE happiest city in the whole of the UK!
Based on the research Winchester, Hampshire is the happiest city in the whole of the UK.
The southern city had one of the highest happiness ratings of the entire ranking which, combined with a life expectancy of 83.6 years meant it scored highly in the ranking.
The average salary for people living and working in Winchester, or in this case the cost of happiness, is £35,346 which is a little higher than the average UK salary.
Brits need to earn a salary of £33,864 to be truly happy in the UK!
The average salary of the top 10 happiest cities in the UK is £33,864, suggesting that people in the UK are happiest if they are earning over £30k compared to the lower salaries of unhappy cities. This is just over the UK average salary of £29K. However, this cost is much higher in the happiest cities in the ranking, Winchester (£35,346 needed) and Cambridge (£33,225 needed to buy happiness).
Careers that earn this average salary include:
Here's the UK happiness ranking and how much you need to earn in 20 of the largest cities in the UK.
Full table and images can be found here
The average salary you need to earn around the world to be happy is £64,057!
However, it's a different story when the data is applied worldwide. The average salary of the top 10 happiest countries is £64,057.28 - suggesting that happiness across the world is achieved more easily if people are earning close to that £65k mark.
Coming up top in the index was Luxembourg with an overall happiness score of a whopping 292 thanks to its life expectancy of 82.1 years and a Happiness Index rating of 1.5. Other countries that made the ranking include Ireland, Singapore and Denmark.
This is how much you need to earn to be happy around the world!
Full table can be found here
Kevin Mountford, Co-Founder of Raisin UK, said: “ Whilst our research suggests money can buy happiness it’s not always the case in real life when put into action. Money does help ease the stresses of daily life which could mean a longer life expectancy in the long-term. Using the Raisin UK does money buy happiness research, can help you decide which city across the UK and country in the world to live in to be the happiest you possibly can.”
About Raisin:
Raisin is an online savings solution that has been designed to help you earn more money from your savings. With a range of partner banks offering FSCS protected savings accounts with competitive rates in one place, they take the hassle out of finding the right savings account for you.
Methodology:
Our “Does money buy you happiness” rankings are created by ranking each city/country by their happiness index score and salary/GDP per capita. The cities/countries that have the highest happiness score are given the highest ranking overall (54 for cities, 146 for countries). The same is then done for salary/GDP per capita. The final rank is then based on the sum of the happiness and salary/GDP per capita ranking score given, e.g. Ireland has a happiness rank score of 144 and a GDP per capita score of 143; therefore the end score is 287. The highest score shows countries that are equally happy and wealthy when both are of equal consideration.
