What makes nations happy - it is not only about being rich

Interesting research on Vox.eu. Below an abstract:

"What accounts for life satisfaction differences across countries? This column presents new findings from the Gallup World Poll of more than 140,000 respondents worldwide. It suggests the happiest nations are those with strong social support from family and friends, freedom in making life choices, and low levels of corruption."

This paper, however, presents a somewhat different perspective, arguing that absolute income increases happinness forever and that relative income comparisons in determining happiness play a limited role. This means, inter alia, that Poland and EU-10 must have now reached the highest level of relative well-being and happinness in their history, given that their absolute and relative incomes are the highest on record.