BERLIN, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Germans are increasingly content with their lives, the latest "Happiness Atlas" published on Thursday by Deutsche Post AG found.
Speaking at the presentation of the "Happiness Atlas" in Hamburg, lead author Bernd Raffelhueschen told press that survey responses obtained were indicative of the "richest and most content Germans" to have lived in the European country to date. Measured on a scale of 0 to 10, the average happiness of Germans increased again slightly from 7.05 points in 2017 to 7.07 points in 2018.
The closely-watched study is commissioned each year since 2010 by the DAX-listed Deutsche Post and measures the subjective wellbeing of respondents within and across Germany's 16 federal states. The gains recorded in 2018 were mainly attributed to continued growth and low unemployment in the eurozone's largest economy.
"Money creates happiness", Raffelhueschen said with view to rising household and individual income and a resulting rise in happiness of 16 percent between 2006 and 2016. The academic noted, however, that "happiness gains" per additional euro were more pronounced for low-income earners than for those with high incomes. An improvement in respondents' perception of their health, living- and family situations were cited as further key factors which contributed to the favorable 2018 outcome.
Within Germany, inhabitants of the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein defended their title as the happiest with a 7.44 reading in the Atlas compared to a 7.07 national average.
Raffelhueschen stressed on Thursday that objective living conditions could not explain regional differences alone. Instead, these also reflected the specific mentality of inhabitants in Germany's states. The economist highlighted in this context that the regional dialect of people in Schlewsig-Holstein had a large number of words to describe coziness and comfort.
