For an emerging and growing market like India it is a great upside, when more number of citizens are happy
Mumbai: Urban Indians have turned happier in October 2024 with a minor uptick in happiness levels, with at least 66% of those polled claiming to be happy, with men and women being equally happy (66%).
For an emerging and growing market like India it is a great upside, when more number of citizens are happy.
Notably, the survey shows happiness levels are much higher for certain cohorts and cities – happiest urban Indians were from the west zone (81%), tier 1 cities (80%), the north zone (77%), tier 2 cities (77%), SEC A (72%).
Some cities had only about only 1 in 2 happy – especially in the case of citizens from tier 3 cities (49%), the south zone (49%) and the east zone (45%) – dealing with tough economic conditions and the vagaries of the weather, further spoiling the party.
“Indians per se have a positive outlook to life, all the hardships notwithstanding. Indians have a good coping mechanism. Though certain cohorts are less happy due to the harsh weather conditions and its impact especially on those who are economically weakened, during the monsoons – esp all the flooding and its adverse impact in eastern coastal areas and south India and small towns. Indians have happy genes. And better economic conditions lead to happiness – akin to the proverb, money can buy happiness, or at least leads to a happy state of mind,” stated Parijat Chakraborty, Group Service Line Leader, Public Affairs, Corporate Reputation, ESG and CSR.
Factors impacting happiness
Happiness is not a just a feeling. The survey shows that some of the key elements intrinsic to oneself and extrinsic, in the ecosystem impact an individual’s happiness.
Urban Indians for instance were the happiest with their family (71%), and the other factors contributing to happiness were, health (65%), friends’ circle (63%), employment/ work (61%), colleagues/ business associates (59%), neighbours (54%), economic/ financial condition (52%), situation of the country (51%) and the situation of the world (46%).
The Ipsos IndiaBus Happiness Monitor is a monthly, pan India omnibus (which also runs multiple client surveys), that uses a structured questionnaire and is conducted by Ipsos India on diverse topics among 2200+ respondents from SEC A, B and C households, covering adults of both genders from all four zones in the country. The survey is conducted in metros, tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 towns, providing a more robust and representative view of urban Indians. The respondents were polled face to face and online. There is city-level quota for each demographic segment that ensures the waves are identical with no additional sampling error. The data is weighted by demographics and city-class population to arrive at national average. Data collection is done every month and the results are calculated on two-months’ rolling sample.