Friday, 24 Oct, 2008 Science

The More Old Friends You Have the Happier You Are, Scientist Say

According to a new study, happiness depends on the number of old friends. The study of British scientists revealed that the happiest people are those who have more old friends. Those who have at least ten good old pals were happier than those who have less than five old friends.

The lead researcher, Dr Richard Tunney of the University of Nottingham, said that individual happiness depends on how many close friendships one has. Those who were very happy with their life had twice as many friends as people who were highly dissatisfied.

The results of the study were based on a poll carried out by Tunney and his colleagues for the National Lottery, reported The Sun. Researchers interviewed 1,760 people, asking them about their relationships with old friends and the level of life satisfaction.

The results showed that those who had a maximum of five friends were 40 percent more likely to be happy with life. People that had between five and ten friends were 50 percent chance of being happy with life and people with more than 10 friends have the highest chances of happiness.

The happiest city in terms of friendship in Britain was Birmingham and its antipode is Brighton, which is, according to the results of the study, rather unhappy.