They say money cannot buy you happiness but what if it can?
According to a recent study, the happiness of a country is related to the income of a population, and the UK has failed to make the top 10.
The direct correlation between average salary and overall happiness was 0.67 meaning that nearly 70 percent of the time, the country with the highest salary would be happier when compared to one with a lower average income.
Finland and Denmark top the list with Norway and Sweden also making it into the top five, making it a near clean sweep for the Scandinavian bloc.
Google data shows that searches for “living in Finland” are up 50 percent this year an indication that the rest of the world is growing aware of the increased happiness of its citizens.
The UK finds itself languishing in 18th in the study behind countries such as Czech Republic and Luxembourg, despite having 82 billionaires (the fifth highest in the study) and a similar average salary and life expectancy to those ranked above.
Towards the bottom of the study, the correlation between average income and happiness grows even starker.
India is ranked as the least happy country on earth with an overall rating of 4.04, closely followed by Egypt, Turkey and Morocco.
Unsurprisingly, Ukraine finds itself in fourth place in the rankings following two and a half years of war following Vladmir Putin’s invasion of the country and the subsequent death and destruction that followed.
Bucking the trend that happiness is linked to a country’s average salary is Hong Kong who despite having an average salary higher than that of the UK finds itself ranked as the ninth happiest country in the world.
Russia and China find themselves as the 16th and 18th least happy places on earth most likely the result of its people living under some of the world’s most authoritarian regimes.
China came second in the list to the United States for the number of billionaires, but its paltry average salary of £772.06 demonstrating the corruption and inequality amongst the worlds most populous nation.
