Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires

(Oxford University Press) In this in-depth study of what makes people happy, the author explores how factors such as income, health, education, religious belief, and marital status affect wellbeing. The study is based on her research in developed and developing countries, ranging from Peru and Russia to the United States and Afghanistan. Graham has discovered surprising consistency in the determinants of happiness across levels of development: generally, good health, stable marriage, and “enough (but not too much) income” have a positive impact on happiness, while unemployment, economic instability, and divorce all negatively affect happiness. Yet the study also shows that humans have a remarkable ability to adapt to both prosperity and adversity. Graham is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland. She has authored numerous books and articles on poverty, inequality, and novel measures of wellbeing.