Female happiness beats recession
2008-12-10 08:02
London - Men are happier with money,
while women find greater joy in friendships and relationships
with their children, co-workers and bosses, a new global survey
reveals.
The online survey of 28 153 people in more than 51
countries by global marketing and information firm Nielsen
found that as the world grapples with a recession and financial
markets remain volatile, many people are reminding themselves
that money can't buy happiness.
The Nielsen Happiness Study found that globally, women are
happier than men in 48 of the 51 countries surveyed in April
2008, and only in Brazil, South Africa and Vietnam were men
found to be happier than women.
"Because they are happier with non-economic factors,
women's happiness is more recession-proof which might explain
why women around the world are happier in general than men
are," Nielsen Vice President of Consumer Research Bruce Paul
said in a statement.
SA men happy with physical health
Japanese women reported the greatest difference and are 15% happier than Japanese men.
Women are also more
optimistic about the future, scoring higher than men on
predictions of their happiness in the next six months.
Women were also more content with their sex lives, although
men were generally happier with their spouses, the study found.
Japanese and New Zealand women reported the greatest difference
in satisfaction with their sex lives.
Men are generally happier with their physical health than
women, and this is especially pronounced in South Africa.
Egypt bucks the trend, with women rating their happiness with their
health considerably higher than men.
Globally, men rated their happiness with their mental
health higher than women. This was echoed in Belgium, South
Korea, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Egypt, and Israel.
Personal financial situation
There are three main drivers of happiness globally,
according to the study: personal financial situation, mental
health and job/career. Being satisfied with your partner is
also important for happiness.
As well as gauging levels of happiness, the Nielsen survey
examined what specific factors contributed to happiness around
the world.
"Happiness is a local and personal matter and Nielsen
sought to uncover what specific factors contribute to making
people happy in different parts of the world," Paul said.
"Many
of the world's poorer and emerging markets outranked developed
countries for happiness and satisfaction levels in nearly all
aspects of their lives."
Globally, Lithuanians and Indonesians are most reliant on
their personal financial situation and job for happiness, while
South Africans and Venezuelans ranked the least dependent on
money for their happiness, the survey found.
Nielsen also looked closely at survey results to find out
if a nation's happiness level was influenced by low income
inequality, low corruption or peace. Surprisingly, markets
which performed poorly on these factors were in many cases the
happiest nations, Paul said.
"For consumers in rapidly developing markets, there could
be a greater sense of appreciation for things that bring a
better life than they had a few years ago."