Let’s work together to create a happier world

The Happier Lives Institute connects donors, researchers, and policymakers with the most cost-effective opportunities to increase global wellbeing.

Using the latest subjective wellbeing data, we identify the problems that matter most to people and find evidence-based ways to solve them.

Explore our research

Give now

Let's work together to create a happier world

The Happier Lives Institute connects donors, researchers, and policymakers with the most cost-effective opportunities to increase global wellbeing.

Using the latest subjective wellbeing data, we identify the problems that matter most to people and find evidence-based ways to solve them.

Explore our research

Give now

Measuring what matters

Most people agree that happiness matters.

Some believe it is the only thing that matters.

Over the last 30 years, pioneering academics in economics, philosophy, and psychology have tested and developed reliable measures of happiness and life satisfaction.

Today, large population surveys allow us to measure and track wellbeing across the world. We can stop relying on measures of wealth or health as our best guess for how people’s lives are going.

But what is wellbeing, how can we measure it, and what difference does it make?

Read our key ideas

You can make a difference

The cost-effective interventions we’ve identified may surprise you. For example, few people expected psychotherapy to be 9 times more cost-effective than cash transfers.

Learn more