Is Your Lifespan Tied to Your Wallet? — What a U.S.–Europe Study Reveals About Wealth and Death

Introduction

Have you ever heard that “earning more than $75,000 a year doesn’t make you any happier”? This idea comes from a well-known 2010 study by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, which found that emotional well-being plateaus at around $75,000 in annual income (roughly 8 million yen).

But while that may suggest money can’t buy happiness beyond a certain point, a more sobering question has recently gained attention:

Can money buy more years of life?

In April 2025, a large international study published in the New England Journal of Medicine took a deep dive into this question, comparing wealth and all-cause mortality across the U.S. and Europe.
Let’s explore what the research found — and what it means for all of us.

---

A Massive 10-Year Study Across 17 Countries

The study drew from two major aging surveys:

• The U.S.-based Health and Retirement Study (HRS)
• The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

It tracked 73,838 adults aged 50 to 85 from 2010 to 2022, analyzing the relationship between individual net worth (excluding housing) and all-cause mortality.

Participants were divided into four wealth quartiles based on their age group and country. Researchers adjusted for factors like age, gender, education, smoking status, marital history, and chronic illness to isolate the impact of wealth.

---

More Wealth = Lower Mortality — But the Gap Isn’t Equal

Hazard Ratios by Wealth Quartile (compared to the poorest group):

• 2nd quartile: 20% lower risk of death (HR 0.80)
• 3rd quartile: 32% lower risk (HR 0.68)
• 4th quartile (wealthiest): 40% lower risk (HR 0.60)

In other words, people in the top wealth group were only 60% as likely to die during the study period as those in the lowest group.

Regional Differences

• In the U.S., the wealth–mortality gap was the largest among all regions.
• In northern and western Europe, even the poorest groups had similar survival rates to the wealthiest Americans.
• The poorest Americans had the highest mortality rate of all groups, including the poorest in eastern Europe.

In the U.S., the regional gap was also notable:
Survival differences between rich and poor were largest in the Midwest, and smallest in the West.

---

Why Is the U.S. Wealth–Death Gap So Wide?

The study didn’t just stop at numbers — it also explored why wealth has such a different impact across countries.

◉ Education, Health Access, and Social Networks

• In the U.S., wealthier people are more likely to have college degrees, be non-smokers, and live in urban areas.
• In contrast, northern and western Europe showed more equitable access to education and health care, even among poorer groups.

So, being poor in the U.S. is far more disadvantageous than being poor in Europe — both in terms of health and life chances.

◉ It’s Not Just How Much You Have — It’s Where You Stand

This study focused on relative wealth within each country, not just raw numbers. That matters because social standing — not just income — strongly influences health through stress, opportunity, and social capital.

---

Can the Rich in the U.S. Outlive Everyone?

Surprisingly, the study found that even wealthy Americans had higher mortality rates than many of their European peers.

In fact, the wealthiest Americans had similar survival rates to the poorest in northern and western Europe.

That suggests there’s more at play than just access to health care. Factors like environment, food systems, stress, mobility, and culture may systematically impact life expectancy in ways that money alone can’t fix.

---

Happiness, Longevity, and the Power of “Enough”

At the start, we mentioned the $75,000 income happiness threshold. Doesn’t that contradict the idea that wealth boosts survival?

Not necessarily.

• Happiness studies deal with emotions and subjective well-being.
• This study, on the other hand, looks at survival — which is deeply shaped by infrastructure, public health systems, and social policy.

Still, for individuals, there’s a lesson here: knowing when you have enough may help you avoid toxic stress, overwork, and burnout — and that might protect both your mental and physical health.

---

What This Means for Society

This study is less about personal financial advice, and more about what kind of society we want to build.

Questions it raises:

• Why do advanced economies have such different “survivability” for their people?
• How can we design systems that reduce health disparities, regardless of wealth?

Policy ideas include:

• Reducing out-of-pocket health costs
• Investing in public education and preventive care
• Bridging rural–urban gaps in health access
• Protecting social safety nets from wealth-driven politics

Because when access to life itself depends on wealth, that’s a sign that policy has failed.

---

Final Thoughts: Life, Money, and Responsibility

This study doesn’t simply say “rich people live longer.”

Instead, it asks:

How far can we separate a person’s lifespan from their bank account?

That’s not a question for economists or doctors alone — it’s a question about values, equality, and human dignity.

As individuals, we can strive for balance and mindful living.
As societies, we must work to ensure that longevity isn’t a luxury for the few, but a right for all.

---

References

• Kahneman, D., & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(38), 16489–16493. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011492107
• Machado, S., et al. (2025). Wealth and Mortality in the United States and Europe. New England Journal of Medicine, 390(14), 1335–1346. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa2408259