Kate Tolo

A scientific study found that $75,000 is the annual income threshold beyond which emotional well-being and happiness no longer increase.

"There was a study that like suggested that it's $75,000 is the threshold needed to be happy and that happiness was not increased by being around—and I think this is an older study, so maybe 75 is 100 now or something like that." (said at 0:35:12)

The speaker accurately describes a widely cited 2010 study by Kahneman and Deaton analyzing over 450,000 Gallup survey responses in the United States. That study found that while life evaluation continued to rise with log income, emotional well-being (daily experiences of happiness, joy, and stress) plateaued beyond an annual household income of approximately $75,000. A subsequent 2023 adversarial collaboration (Killingsworth, Kahneman, and Mellers) re-evaluated this finding, showing that emotional well-being generally continues to increase with higher income for most individuals, with a plateau around $100,000 observed primarily among the least happy 20% of the population due to measurement ceiling effects in the original study.

• supports: High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2010) · cited 3163x in the literature

  "Emotional well-being also rises with log income, but there is no further progress beyond an annual income of ~$75,000. Low income exacerbates the emotional pain associated with such misfortunes as divorce, ill health, and being alone. We conclude that high income buys life satisfaction but not happiness" (abstract, results, passage verified)

  pubmedfull study (doi)
• context: Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2023) · cited 184x in the literature

  "Using dichotomous questions about the preceding day, [Kahneman and Deaton, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 107 , 16489-16493 (2010)] reported a flattening pattern: happiness increased steadily with log(income) up to a threshold and then plateaued... A reanalysis of Killingsworth's experienced sampling data confirmed the flattening pattern only for the least happy people. Happiness increases steadily with log(income) among happier people, and even accelerates in the happiest group." (abstract, results, passage verified)

  pubmedfull study (doi)