The World Health Organization recently released research looking at the levels of depression around the world. In their interviews of 90,000 people from 18 different countries, they found something that may surprise you. Their study revealed that citizens of rich countries are more likely to suffer from a major depression, at least once in their lifetime, than those living in poorer nations. Where did they find the most depression? The French led the way with 21% followed by the United States with 19%. Some of the poorer countries had much lower rates. Examples include Mexico with a rate of 8% and China with a rate of 6.5%.
In both rich and poor countries, the average age of onset was between 24 and 25 years old, indicating that this is a vulnerable age for the onset of depression regardless of culture. Another interesting finding held true worldwide. First, women are twice as likely as men to be depressed. Second, the most common cause is to be found in disrupted relationships. Specifically, in high income countries, depression was most correlated with being separated from a partner. In low to middle income countries depression correlates most with being widowed or divorced. The WHO realizes that more research needs to be done to figure out what combination of factors increase the risk of depression around the world.
A second study, recently published by Princeton University researchers, Krueger and Kahneman and colleagues found that people, asked about their own happiness compared to others with varying incomes, tended to overstate the impact of income on well-being. Although income is widely assumed to correlate with happiness, the researchers found that its role is less significant than predicted. Another finding was that those with higher incomes were not necessarily spending time in more enjoyable ways but were instead devoting lots of time to work, shopping, childcare and other “obligatory” activities. Specifically, men making more than $100,000 per year spend only 19.9 percent of their time on passive leisure, compared to 34.7 percent for men making less than $20,000. Wealthier women are about the same. Those earning $100,000 spend 19.6 percent of their time on passive leisure, compared with 33.5 percent of those making less than $20,000. This research can teach us that how we spend our time may be far more important than how we spend our money. Something to think about…
Speak Your Mind