Human First

Moderate evidence

Money and happiness: what an adversarial collaboration found

Does more income keep making people happier, or does happiness level off?

Bottom line

For most people, happiness keeps rising with income on a logarithmic scale, with no ceiling at $75,0002. A leveling off appears only among the least happy people3, and low income makes life's misfortunes hurt more4.

A widely cited 2010 study found that life evaluation rose steadily with income, but day-to-day emotional well-being stopped improving beyond about $75,000 a year1.

A 2021 study using 1,725,994 real-time reports from 33,391 employed US adults found no such plateau. Both how people felt in the moment and how they rated their lives rose in a straight line with the logarithm of income2.

Instead of arguing in print, the authors of both studies ran an adversarial collaboration together. Reanalysing the data, they found the leveling off is real only for the least happy people. For happier people, happiness keeps rising with income, and even accelerates in the happiest group3.

The 2010 study also found that low income makes the emotional pain of misfortunes such as divorce, ill health and being alone worse4.

What this does not show

  • The data come from the United States and from employed adults in the 2021 study.
  • These are associations across people. They do not test what happens when a specific person's income is raised.
  • "Logarithmic" means each doubling of income is linked to a similar rise in happiness, so an extra $10,000 matters far more at low incomes than at high ones.

Claims and sources

  1. In over 450,000 Gallup responses, life evaluation rose steadily with log income, while emotional well-being showed no further progress beyond an annual income of about $75,000.

    Research finding Moderate evidence

    • Kahneman D, Deaton A (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.1011492107

  2. In 1,725,994 experience-sampling reports from 33,391 employed US adults, both experienced and evaluative well-being increased linearly with log(income), with no plateau above $75,000 per year.

    Research finding Moderate evidence

    • Killingsworth MA (2021). Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.2016976118

  3. A joint reanalysis found the flattening pattern only for the least happy people; among happier people, happiness increased steadily with log(income) and accelerated in the happiest group.

    Research finding Moderate evidence

    • Killingsworth MA, Kahneman D, Mellers B (2023). Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.2208661120

  4. Low income exacerbates the emotional pain associated with misfortunes such as divorce, ill health and being alone.

    Research finding Moderate evidence

    • Kahneman D, Deaton A (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.1011492107

Version 1. First published , updated . Approved by The Human First editors on . Sources last verified 2026-10-24. Machine-readable version.