What Matters Most

We conducted statistical tests on countries pooled into peer groups with roughly similar levels of income, to assess changes in the importance of the Index factors at different income levels. Strikingly, for the poorest countries, income is the single strongest driver of life satisfaction, while for the richest countries, additional increases in income have little impact. Because it is not possible to test every factor in the Index in a single statistical analysis, not all factors are included, and thus the weights shown here do not correspond exactly with the weights in the overall Index.