A new study has given the lie to the old saying “money can’t buy happiness” by arriving at the precise annual income people need to feel happy: $161,810 – a figure which is 15 times the global average income.

Having surveyed 5,000 people on four continents, Skandia International found that globally 80 per cent of respondents believe that they would be “really happy” if they had an annual net income of $161,810. However, there were significant differences when it came to the responses from individual countries.

Those polled in Dubai would require a far higher income - $276,150 - to be happy, while those Singapore and Hong Kong also have greater wants, aspiring to an income of $227,563 and $197,702 respectively.

The firm found that generally Europeans have their sights set far lower. Perhaps surprisingly, given its concentration of high and ultra high net worth individuals and relative economic strength, Germans required the least amount of income to feel happy: $85,781.

The highest European “price of happiness” is Italy’s figure of $175,825, while the UK came in second place with an average requirement of $133,010.

Drilling down further into the findings of the Wealth Sentiment Survey, it was found that in some countries women feel that they would need a higher income to be happy than their male compatriots. This was the case in Hong Kong, Italy and Brazil. The differences in the first two cases were relatively modest (women wanted 11 and 13 per cent higher respectively), but in Brazil the contrast was more stark. Women in Brazil wanted $192,929 in annual income in order to feel happy – 55 per cent higher than Brazilian men.

The study also looked at the amount of net assets that respondents would need to have to deem themselves wealthy (the definitions of what is meant by high or ultra high net worth are of course subject to some debate).  It was found that Singaporeans place the attainment of “wealthy” status at the highest figure internationally: $2.9 million in net assets. Dubai and Hong Kong followed at $2.5 million and $2.46 million respectively.

Again, European respondents had far more modest ambitions, with those in Austria and Germany saying they would consider themselves wealthy if they had just $0.9 million and $1 million respectively in net assets.