Does the weather affect people’s happiness? If so, how? Two researchers, professor Katrin Rehdanz from the Centre for Marine and Climate Research, Hamburg University, Hamburg, Germany (now at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel) and professor David Maddison from the Department of Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark (now at the University of Birmingham, UK) co-authored the paper ‘Climate and Happiness‘ for the journal Ecological Economics, 52, 111-125 (2005). The research corellated data from the World Database of Happiness with prevailing weather in 67 countries. And the analysis showed up some important aspects of peoples’ weather-preferences :
“People seem to be concerned with very low and high temperatures as well as very little rain.“
Perhaps then, when it comes to happiness and the weather, Goldilocks-like effects might be at work?
“The estimates suggest that people living in very cold regions would prefer higher mean temperatures in the coldest month whereas those living in regions with very high temperatures would prefer lower temperatures in the hottest month.”
The paper can be read in full here :