Happiness can be bought: Singaporeans' price of happiness starts at $5,150

New survey reveals the cost of happiness around the world.

A Singaporean’s happiness will cost around $61,810.87 (US$46,078) a year or around $5,150 per month, according to The Price of Happiness Index by Expensivity.

The index has placed Singapore as the country with the moderate cost of happiness in Asia and Oceania regions.

In the region, Australia has the highest cost of happiness at $181,525 (US$135,321) a year, and it has placed second in the whole world. The lowest happiness price in the region is in Azerbaijan with $19,237 (US$14,341).

Meanwhile, Bermuda has the highest price for happines in the world at $193,077 (US$143,933) per year, whilst Israel has claimed the third spot with $175,000 (US$130,457) a year.

Expensivity used estimates from Purdue University’s paper “Happiness, income satiation and turning points around the world” to calculate satiation points for over 160 countries. It then adjusted dollar figures using the Purchasing Power Parity conversion factor from the World Bank and the currency exchange rate from The Global Economy in order to convert the figures from the regional to the country level.

It also used cost of living data from Numbeo to adjust national level estimates of satiation points to the city level. National estimates were adjusted using Numbeo’s Cost of Living Index, wherein a one-point difference in index score between two geographies is equivalent to a 1% difference in the cost of living.