Are Money and Happiness Tied Together?

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Are Money and Happiness Tied Together?

Written by: suzanne rodriguez 2,143 views

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In times like these—when most people are worried about economic issues and job stability—you’d expect Americans to be a lot less happy than they were last year at this time. Right?

Wrong! As the old saying goes, money can’t buy happiness; and maybe worries over money can’t deplete happiness, either. According to a recent Harris Interactive Poll (the Harris Poll Happiness Index) 35% of Americans are very happy, indeed.

But what, exactly, makes people happy? According to the poll, happiness isn’t just about money or jobs or even economic stability. Rather, it’s having a close network of friends, positive relationships with family members, and spiritual beliefs. When all of these are examined in total, it’s clear that Americans are not unhappy. They may be frustrated with certain aspects of their lives. They may watch the economic news and wish their 401(k)s or stock portfolios were doing better. They may worry that they or a loved one will lose a job, but the important parts that make up the rest of their lives seem to be going well.

To obtain results, Harris Interactive polled 2,401 U.S. adults (18 and older) online between April 13 and 21, 2009. Here are some of the key findings:

Women are slightly happier than men (36% vs. 34%). Among women, 38% of married women are very happy compared to 34% of single women.
The more education one has, the happier one is: 33% of those who have a high school or less education are happy; 36% of both those with some college and college graduates are happy; and 39% of those with a post graduate education are happy.
With regard to income, however, more isn’t necessarily better: the happiest income group consisted of those making between $50,000 and $74,999 (39%), followed by those with incomes of $75,000 and up (36%).
When looking at happiness by age, just under one-third of those between 18 and 49 are very happy. But 37% of those aged 50-64 are very happy, and almost half of those 65 and older are very happy (45%).
One of the only real changes in happiness from last year is among African Americans and Hispanics. Last year, 35% of African Americans were happy as were 32% of Hispanics. This year, those numbers go up to 41% and 36% respectively. Whites, however, are unchanged at 35% for both last year and this year.
The number of Democrats who were happy also ticked up this year (from 33% to 36%) and the Republican number ticked down a little (39% to 37%). These changes probably have something to do with the election of President Obama.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agree to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.