By Lydia Lim

Forget the idea that people in poorer countries might enjoy a greater sense of well-being.

A recent global survey by Gallup has shown that development and prosperity pays, both economically and socially.

People in richer countries generally felt better, it found. Polling in more than 130 countries by Gallup, which specialises in research into human behaviour, found a strong correlation between a country's per capita income and its citizens' sense of well-being.

At a luncheon session yesterday, Gallup Organisation chairman and chief executive Jim Clifton and psychology professor and Gallup senior scientist Ed Diener presented findings from a survey built around a new Well-Being Index.

The findings were based on face-to-face and telephone interviews carried out with population samples around the world.

Those polled were asked to evaluate their overall lives based on a scale of zero for worst possible life, to 10 for best possible life.

They were also asked to comment on their experiences, including whether they were treated with respect, did something interesting or smiled and laughed a lot the day before the interview.

Mr Clifton said there is an important link between how well a country ranks on the Well-Being Index and migration flows - which in turn determines 'brain gain', possibly the single most important factor of wealth creation in the current age.

Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh later asked the two presenters about the correlation between wealth and well-being as he had read other surveys in which people in poor countries were ranked higher on a happiness index than people here in Singapore.

Prof Diener replied that the correlation between wealth and well-being is a strong one.

The Gallup survey, he said, showed that with good samples and good data, cases of higher well-being in poorer countries did not show up.

In his presentation, Prof Diener described happy nations as those that are prosperous, have low levels of corruption, experience relatively low conflict and where people enjoy good health.

According to the Gallup website, the survey found that people in Denmark, New Zealand and Canada report the highest well-being in the world.

The countries with the highest scores were almost exclusively high per-capita-income countries in Europe, North and South America and Oceania.

No country in Asia or Africa made it to the top-10 list.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 25 June 2008.