In social indicators research there is a long-standing debate on the relationship between national wealth and subjective well being.
The debate on effects of national wealth on subjective well-being is mainly based on aggregate analysis of national data with gross national product per capita as one global wealth indicator and life satisfaction ratings as subjective well-being indicator, leading to controversial empirical and theoretical results.
In his famous "Patterns of Human Concern" social psychologist Hadley Cantril (1965) reported on a first worldwide survey study. He reported that inhabitants of rich countries (with high gross national product, GNP) found more pleasure in life than people in poor countries (with low GNP). This study involved interviews with representatives' samples of the population in 14 countries selected to represent differences in economic development. Interviews took place in 1960. Looking at the rank relation between average life satisfaction and his index of economic development he found reported life satisfaction to be higher in the economically most development countries. Cantril suggested two reasons for this statistical relationship. Firstly, citizens in the poor countries would be "objectively deprived", their economic system failing to provide minimal necessities. Secondly, inhabitants of the poor countries would also be the victims of "subjective deprivation": the awareness that life is better in the rich world, lowering the appreciation of their own.
GNP per capita is the gross national product of the country divided by the total population in other words, average income earned by each citizen of the country.
"Gross" indicates that the value lost through the "wear and tear" of capital used in production tha ...