The Beatles sang that money can't buy you love, but might it make you happier? A new study compared wealth and well-being around the world - each circle represents a country sized approximately by its population. The red circle show countries where happiness has moved in the opposite direction to GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The blue circle show countries where happiness and GDP have moved in the same direction. They go from richer to poorer - what about happiness?
On a scale from zero to ten, where would you place your life satisfaction right now? That question was asked of thousands of people around the world, and surprisingly the rich in the country the happier it is. That makes Europeans the most gleeful, Africans the most miserable - but there's a snag. Overall, in about a third of countries happiness has moved in the opposite direction to income. Countries don't always get happier as they get richer. In America, people are less happy despite a growing economy and in the UAE, happiness has risen despite falling wealth. Take the world's two most populous places. Incomes in both India and China have about doubled in 10 years but levels of happiness have diverged.