New book explores the cause of happiness in Canadians

Does money really make you happier? What about a new iPod? 

It turns out, if you live in Canada, money likely isn’t the root cause of your happiness.

John Hallward is the author of “The Happiness Equation: The Human Nature of Happy People,” a book that explores the secrets to happiness by looking at trends in Canadian consumer studies.

Hallward finds that, despite advances in material goods and quality of life, Canadians are not getting any happier.

“Over the past sixty years people in developed nations find themselves on a new path unlike anything from our ancestral environment,” says Hallward. “When some of the freest, wealthiest democracies in the world do not even rank in the top tier of happiest nations, something is not working so well.” 

“We need to re-think our approach to happiness.”

Hallward’s findings are not based on one person’s opinion, but are reached after combing through survey results from over a thousand adult Canadians.

So what makes the average Canadian happy?

Hallward says that around 50 per cent of a person’s happiness is genetic, and another 25 per cent environmental – where you grew up, what values you grew up with – leaving 25 per cent up in the air.

Of the Canadians surveyed, 18 per cent said they were really happy, 43 per cent said they were moderately happy, and 39 per cent said they were unhappy.

Hallward says one of the biggest determining factors in a person’s level of happiness is compassion. The author told The Toronto Star, “it sounds a bit corny but overall it’s compassion over consumption” that makes people happy. 

The happiest Canadians include those over 60 years old and married, with a healthy romance. The least happy people included those who are in their 30s, single, separated, divorced or widowed. Whether or not a person has children does not have a significant impact on their level of happiness.

One of the biggest factors contributing to unhappiness is debt. Even among wealthy people, if you are in debt, you are less likely to be happy. Once out of debt however, money is less relevant to how happy you are. 

Also factoring into a person’s happiness is religion. Hallward says that believing in a god, regardless of the religion, helps you mentally cope with difficult issues. He adds, “if you attend religious services, it keeps you connected with other people and may give you the outlet to volunteer more.”