Your happiness matters to earth Moises Velasquez-Manoff Overall, people around the world have grown happier during the past 25 years, according to the most recent World Values Survey (WVS), a periodic assessment of happiness in 97 nations. But the survey, based at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor, also underscore that, beyond a certain point, material wealth doesn't boost happiness. The United States, which ranked 16th and has the world's largest economy, has largely stalled in happiness gains