Six data points on what actually drives happiness, from an 80-year Harvard study on relationships to a famous number about money that turned out to be only half true
What Really Makes People Happy? The Data May Surprise You
Three tiers, by what they actually measure
The Mood
Small, repeatable inputs to day-to-day wellbeing you could act on this week.
The Evaluation
The bigger, life-structural things that quietly shape overall life satisfaction.
The Myth
Two famous happiness claims, checked against what the original research actually found.
Explore the data
Does giving predict happiness worldwide?
Dataset schema
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
case_id | string | Short identifier for the case, e.g. prosocialspend |
case_name | string | Full, human-readable case title |
tier | string | mood, evaluation, or myth |
metric_label | string | What the figure measures |
metric_value | number | The reported numeric value |
unit | string | dollars, percent, points, or count |
source | string | Study, survey, or research institution |
source_year | number | Year of fieldwork or publication |
sample_size | string | Reported sample size, where available |
Sourcing & methodology
Every figure traces to a named peer-reviewed study or a large public dataset, never a repeated internet statistic. The two myth cases are included specifically because their popular one-line summaries diverge from what the original research found, and that gap is documented rather than smoothed over.
Licensing & compliance
This dataset is available for commercial and internal use under a DT Linux data license. Every figure remains attributed to its original source. No respondent-level or personally identifiable data is included anywhere; all figures are published aggregates.
API access
Need these figures inside your own dashboard or product? DT Linux can expose this and other data-briefing datasets over a lightweight API. Reach out at info@dtlinux.com to discuss access.
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