Background: It’s easy to think that if you won the lottery, you would be the happiest person in the world! But, the relationship between income (money) and life satisfaction (happiness) might depend on a lot of other factors, and maybe even on where in the world you live. Do countries where people have relatively high income also report high levels of satisfaction?

The graph shows the relationship between one measure of a country's average income (per-capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2003, on a logarithmic scale) and its residents' average life satisfaction rating (on a 0­–­10 scale). The circles represent countries; diameter of each circle is proportional to population. The dotted line through the middle is the best fit between the two variables among all the countries studied; the closer a country is to the line, the better it fits the overall pattern. The countries in green are Eastern Europe & the former USSR, where there is currently some unrest.

Data Source: A. Deaton, March 11, 2008.