The Price of Happiness in Spain: Workers Need to Nearly Double Incomes for Well-Being, Study Finds

According to the Global Cost of Happiness report from the company Remitly, based on research by Purdue University, the average worker in Spain would need to almost double their income to reach the level associated with a sense of well-being. For the country as a whole, this threshold stands at €87,900 a year — against an average salary of around €39,000.

The highest figure was recorded in Madrid — €89,759 a year. It is followed by Barcelona (€88,562) and Palma de Mallorca (€88,263). In these three cities, the gap between the average salary and the "cost of happiness" exceeds €45,000.

Further down the list are Bilbao (€81,680), Oviedo (€80,184), Málaga (€76,893), Valencia (€75,696), and Seville (€74,649). Rounding out the ranking are Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (€73,752) and Granada (€73,153). In none of the cities studied did the figure drop below €73,000.

In the European context, Spain lags behind its neighbours in the ratio of average salary to the "cost of happiness." The only country where average incomes exceed the well-being threshold is Slovenia (116.3%). It is followed by Luxembourg (92.8%), Estonia (90.5%), and Lithuania (89.2%). Germany covers 63.1% of the threshold, and France 57.4%. Both figures are higher than Spain's.

The highest cost of "happiness" is in Iceland — $163,579 a year. In second place is Australia ($161,302), and in third Switzerland ($154,504). At the other end is Ethiopia, where the threshold is just $10,176.

What is the "cost of happiness"

The concept is based on Purdue University research into the link between income and subjective well-being. The scientists identified a so-called "income satiation point" — the level beyond which a rise in salary has virtually no effect on life satisfaction. To adapt these data to each country, Remitly used the International Monetary Fund's purchasing-power indices, cumulative inflation as of March 2026, and city cost-of-living data from the Numbeo database.