The Origins of Happiness

1. Happiness, not wealth, is the true goal of progress and policy.

The care of human life and happiness … is the only legitimate object of good government.

Shift in focus. The traditional focus on wealth and income as primary indicators of progress is outdated. A new paradigm is emerging globally, demanding a broader concept of human progress centered on how much people are genuinely enjoying their lives. This ideal, rooted in the 18th-century Enlightenment, posits that the ultimate aim of both individual lives and government policy should be the creation of maximum happiness and minimum misery.

Jefferson's wisdom. Thomas Jefferson articulated this principle clearly, stating that the care of human life and happiness is the sole legitimate object of good government. This perspective implies that policy makers should prioritize creating conditions that foster happy and fulfilling lives for their citizens, rather than solely pursuing economic growth or wealth accumulation.

Beyond GDP. Money is a visible metric, but it fails to capture the full spectrum of human well-being. Recognizing this limitation, people worldwide are increasingly rejecting wealth as the overriding goal, turning instead to the more comprehensive idea of subjective well-being as the true measure of societal success and individual flourishing.

2. Measuring happiness is feasible and provides vital insights into well-being.

In our view we should evaluate people’s happiness as they themselves evaluate it.

Self-reported satisfaction. The science of subjective well-being has developed robust methods for measuring how people feel about their lives. A common approach asks individuals to rate their overall life satisfaction on a scale (e.g., 0-10), allowing for a direct assessment of their well-being based on their own criteria. This method is comprehensive, clear, and democratic, empowering individuals to define what matters most to them.

Reliability and validity. While some may question the reliability of self-reported happiness, these measures have proven to be remarkably consistent and predictive. They correlate with physiological and neurological indicators and predict future behaviors, including voting patterns and even longevity.

Policy relevance. Governments in many advanced countries now collect official statistics on life satisfaction. This data provides policy makers with crucial information to understand the state of their population's well-being and to identify areas where interventions could be most impactful, moving beyond traditional economic indicators.

3. Mental health is the single most important factor for adult happiness and misery.

Mental health is the most important single factor explaining the variation in the happiness of the population.

Overlooked crisis. Mental illness, such as depression and anxiety disorders, is a more significant predictor of individual happiness and misery than income, education, or physical health. It explains a larger portion of the variation in life satisfaction across the population and is a major cause of human suffering, including suicide.

Beyond external factors. While poverty and unemployment can contribute to mental health problems, a substantial portion of mental illness is not directly caused by these external factors. This highlights the need for a broader understanding of deprivation that includes internal states of pain and suffering, not just economic hardship.

Impact on misery. Analysis shows that eliminating mental illness would reduce the percentage of people in misery (the lowest levels of life satisfaction) far more than eliminating poverty or unemployment. This underscores the critical importance of prioritizing mental health care for both individual well-being and societal flourishing.

4. Strong relationships are crucial for lasting adult well-being.

Human relationships are much more important, especially close personal partnering.

Fundamental need. Close personal relationships, particularly being partnered, are profoundly important for a satisfying life. Being in a partnership significantly increases happiness, while losing a partner through separation or death causes a roughly equal reduction in well-being.

Beyond partnering. The quality of other human relationships also matters, including those with colleagues, bosses, and within the local community. Social support networks and a sense of belonging are vital components of well-being, especially in later life where loneliness becomes a major issue.

Lasting benefits. Unlike some other factors, the benefits of entering a partnership appear to be long-lasting, with little evidence of complete adaptation over time. This contrasts with the pain of separation or widowhood, which, while partially adapted to, often leaves a lasting scar on happiness.

5. Income matters for happiness, but far less than commonly believed, and relative income is key.

Income explains only a relatively small part of the variation in the happiness of the population.

Diminishing returns. While richer people are, on average, happier than poorer people within a country at a given time, the effect of income on happiness is surprisingly small. Doubling a person's income typically increases their life satisfaction by less than 0.2 points on a 0-10 scale, and income differences explain only about 1% of the variation in happiness among individuals.

Relative income matters. A significant portion of the happiness derived from income is relative to the income of others. If one person's income increases, they become happier, but others around them may become less happy due to comparison effects. This means that general increases in income across society have a much smaller impact on overall happiness than individual income gains might suggest.

The Easterlin Paradox. This phenomenon helps explain why average happiness levels have not risen substantially in many countries (like the US, UK, and Germany) despite significant economic growth over decades. The benefits of increased absolute income are often offset by the negative effects of rising relative income comparisons.

6. Unemployment is a devastating experience with profound, non-financial costs.

Unemployment is one of the most bruising of all experiences.

Beyond lost wages. Being unemployed causes a significant drop in happiness, estimated at around 0.7 points on the 0-10 scale, even after accounting for the loss of income. This highlights the crucial non-financial benefits of work, such as a sense of purpose, belonging, and being needed.

No adaptation. Unlike some other negative life events, people generally do not adapt to unemployment. The pain remains severe as long as the person is out of work, and the experience can leave lasting psychological scars, reducing happiness even after re-employment.

Societal impact. Unemployment also negatively affects the well-being of the wider community. High local unemployment rates reduce the life satisfaction of employed individuals in the area, creating fear and uncertainty. The aggregate loss of happiness in the community from one person becoming unemployed is estimated to be substantial, far exceeding the loss experienced by the unemployed individual alone.

7. A child's emotional health is the strongest predictor of their future adult happiness.

If we go back to childhood and ask what is the best predictor of an enjoyable adult life, the best predictor is the child’s emotional health...

Early foundations. Looking back at childhood factors, a child's emotional well-being is a more powerful predictor of their life satisfaction as an adult than their academic achievements or behavioral conduct. While intellectual development is crucial for income and qualifications, emotional health is paramount for overall adult happiness.

Beyond academics. This finding challenges the traditional focus of education systems primarily on intellectual performance and, to a lesser extent, behavior. It suggests that fostering emotional resilience and well-being in children should be a central priority for parents and schools, given its long-term impact on adult flourishing.

Behavioral links. While emotional health is the strongest predictor of adult happiness, childhood behavior is a better predictor of adult behavior, such as non-criminality. This indicates that different dimensions of child development contribute to different aspects of adult success and well-being.

8. Parental mental health significantly shapes a child's emotional and behavioral development.

The mother’s mental health matters relatively little for children’s academic performance, but it matters greatly for their behavior and their emotional health.

Mother's crucial role. The mental health of parents, particularly the mother, has a profound influence on their children's emotional well-being and behavior. A mother's mental health is the biggest single family determinant of a child's happiness and conduct, reinforcing the intergenerational transmission of well-being.

Beyond genetics. While genetics play a role, the impact of parental mental health is also significantly experiential. Children's brains are affected by their mother's emotional state even before birth, and these effects persist, suggesting that interventions targeting parental mental health can have a direct positive impact on children.

Parenting style. Beyond mental health, parenting style also matters. Involved parents, who engage actively with their children, can significantly aid their academic development. Aggressive parenting, such as shouting or hitting, is associated with negative child behavior and emotional health outcomes.

9. Family conflict is more damaging to children than parental separation itself.

What matters is family conflict, rather than family break-up, and, if the conflict is bad enough, the break-up may help the children.

Conflict's toll. High levels of conflict between parents are unambiguously detrimental to children's emotional well-being and behavior. Children exposed to parental fighting are more likely to experience unhappiness and behavioral problems, a finding consistent across multiple studies.

Separation's nuance. Parental separation, while disruptive, is less damaging to children than ongoing, high-conflict relationships. In situations of severe conflict, separation may even be beneficial for the children's well-being, although children from separated families with high conflict are still worse off emotionally than those from low-conflict, intact families.

Behavioral impact. The negative effects of parental conflict are particularly pronounced on children's behavior, suggesting that parents who fight are more likely to raise children who exhibit behavioral issues. This highlights the importance of fostering harmonious relationships within the family unit for the sake of children's development.

10. Schools profoundly impact children's emotional well-being and behavior, not just academics.

Primary and secondary schools have major effects on the emotional well-being of their children.

Beyond test scores. Schools have a significant impact on children's development across all dimensions: emotional, behavioral, and intellectual. The specific school a child attends accounts for a substantial portion of the variation in their emotional health and behavior, comparable to its impact on academic performance.

Enduring influence. The influence of primary schools and individual primary school teachers is remarkably long-lasting, detectable years later in children's emotional health and academic outcomes. Teachers have a greater impact on children's emotional well-being than on their math learning, and this positive influence on well-being does not detract from, but rather supports, academic performance.

Quality over quantity. While school quality matters immensely, easily measurable characteristics like class size appear to have little impact on outcomes. This suggests that the focus for educational improvement should be on enhancing the quality of teaching and the overall school environment, rather than simply reducing class sizes.

11. Social norms and institutions like trust and freedom are vital for national happiness.

People are not happy where there is distrust, social dislocation, oppression, inequality, and poor government.

Collective well-being. Beyond individual circumstances, the overall happiness of a society is profoundly shaped by its social norms and institutions. Factors like the level of trust among citizens, the prevalence of social support networks, and the degree of personal freedom significantly contribute to average national life satisfaction.

Trust and freedom's impact. High levels of trust within a society are associated with substantially higher average happiness. Similarly, personal freedom – the ability to choose one's way of life – is a crucial determinant of well-being, explaining why totalitarian states tend to have lower happiness levels.

Ethos matters. The ethos of a society, encompassing ethical norms, generosity, tolerance, and the quality of government, collectively creates an environment that either fosters or hinders happiness. While income contributes to national happiness, these social and institutional factors explain a large portion of the differences in well-being observed across countries.

12. Policy decisions should be evaluated based on their cost-effectiveness in generating happiness.

We believe that policy analysis should be based on happiness as the measure of benefit...

New evaluation metric. To effectively prioritize policies aimed at improving well-being, governments and organizations should adopt a cost-effectiveness approach where benefits are measured in "point-years of happiness." This involves quantifying how much happiness a policy generates per unit of cost, allowing for direct comparison across diverse interventions.

Beyond willingness-to-pay. This approach is particularly valuable for evaluating public goods and services (like health care, child protection, or crime reduction) where traditional methods based on willingness-to-pay are often inadequate or impossible to apply. Happiness data provides a concrete, evidence-based way to assess the impact of these policies.

Prioritizing interventions. By establishing a critical cost-per-happiness-year threshold, policy makers can systematically identify and fund interventions that offer the greatest return in terms of well-being. This framework encourages focusing resources on areas with high potential for happiness gains, such as mental health treatment, improving relationships, and enhancing school environments.

Last updated: July 4, 2025