Do you feel, on average, happier than a 2.7 out of 10? And does your country’s population score higher too? Good news: your nation is happy enough to reap major health benefits, according to new research.
The study, published in Frontiers in Medicine, found that countries with a Life Ladder score – a global measure of wellbeing – above 2.7 out of 10 showed significantly lower rates of death from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, cancer, asthma and diabetes.
The findings suggest that while happiness and health are closely linked, a nation must first cross this wellbeing threshold before its population can truly feel the benefits.
For every 1 per cent increase in happiness above this threshold, deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) fell by an average of 0.43 per cent – suggesting that even small boosts in wellbeing can translate into real health gains.
In the United States, where the average happiness score is 6.96, such an improvement would represent nearly 11,500 fewer deaths from NCDs each year.
“Happiness is not just a personal feeling but also a measurable public health resource,” said Professor Iulia Iuga from Romania’s ’1 Decembrie 1918’ University of Alba Iulia, who led the study.
The research analysed happiness data from 123 nations collected between 2006 and 2021 and compared it with national death rates from NCDs in adults aged 30 to 70.
Scientists used the Life Ladder, a global measure of subjective wellbeing that asks people to rate their lives on a scale from zero to 10, with higher scores reflecting greater life satisfaction.
“The Life Ladder can be imagined as a simple zero-to-10 happiness ruler, where zero means the worst possible life and 10 means the best,” explained Iuga. “An adjective that fits the threshold level of 2.7 could be ‘barely coping’.”Only one country in the world, Afghanistan, is currently below this threshold, with a happiness score of 1.36. Currently, Finland tops the global rankings with a Life Ladder score of 7.74, followed by Denmark (7.52) and Iceland (7.51).
According to Iuga, the findings show that the benefits of happiness continue to grow without limits. “There is no ‘too-much-happiness’ penalty,” she said. “The study finds no point at which the marginal health benefit becomes negligible or reverses.”
Iuga also added that the results suggest that policies which raise national wellbeing could create a self-sustaining cycle of health improvement – where better health boosts happiness, which in turn promotes further health gains.
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