Money cannot buy you happiness, according to new research from the University of Ulster.
The most important sources of happiness are good health and freedom from financial worries, Professor Vani Borooah found.
He studied more than 3,000 interviews from the Poverty and Social Exclusion in Northern Ireland survey and the results of his research were published recently in the Journal of Happiness Studies.
Professor Borooah said the research has important implications for policy makers. Too much emphasis is placed on generating wealth, particularly private wealth. Instead there should be more attention paid to devising policies which would lead to greater happiness, for example, by tackling mental health problems – one of the greatest sources of unhappiness.
Among his findings were: