It’s hard to put a price on happiness. For most of us, it’s a new smartphone, a new laptop, or the latest gadget. But one study attempted to put an actual price on it.
Expensivity converted the “happiness premium” of every country, using the Purchasing Power ratios from the World Bank and added the local cost of living to the mix to calculate the different cost of happiness in each city.
So how much is the price of happiness in the Philippines? Well, according to Expensivity, an average income of US$ 28,264 per annum will help keep you from being unhappy. Converted to local currency, that’s roughly around P1,519,500 per year or around P126,600 per month.
As for the rest of the world? Well, here are the top 10 countries with the highest price of happiness. These are mostly places where the cost of living is high.
- Bermuda – US$ 143,933
- Australia – US$ 135,321
- Israel – US$ 130,437
- Switzerland – US$ 128,969
- New Zealand – US$ 128,844
- Norway – US$ 114,147
- Denmark – US$ 109,142
- Japan – US$ 107,587
- Iceland – US$ 107,351
- United States – US$ 105,00
Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, we have the countries with the top 10 lowest price of happiness.
- Suriname – US$ 6,799
- Argentina – US$ 8,778
- Angola – US$ 8,921
- Kyrgyzstan – US$ 8,997
- Iran – US$ 10,134
- Zambia – US$ 10,224
- Sierra Leone – US$ 10,498
- Ethiopia – US$ 10,681
- Turkey – US$ 10,742
- Nicaragua – US$ 11,273
Remember, money isn’t everything and it can’t buy every kind of happiness. As Expensivity puts it, the best things in life are free – there’s nothing like love, exercise, and creativity to conjure happiness on a budget.
