It appears friendships and family ties are the key to happiness.
According to new research from Statistics New Zealand, people with a large number of friends and family feel more satisfied with their life.
Of the people surveyed, 89 percent of those with 11 or more people in their network of friends and family gave a higher number when rating their well-being.
This compares with a well-being rating of 60 percent for people with no supportive friends or family.
Senior analyst Rosemary Goodyear said support networks are essential for a person’s well-being.
"Having large numbers of family and friends can encourage healthy behaviours and improve general well-being outcomes," she said.
When the well-being ratings were lower, people reported feeling lonely.
Fourteen percent of people with no support from family and friends said they felt lonely all or most of the time in the four weeks leading up to the survey.
As the number of friends and family went up, the level of loneliness went down.
Only two percent of those with more than 10 people in their support network reported feeling lonely.
The information was taken from the 2014 New Zealand General Social Survey to look at the size and interaction of people’s support networks.
Newshub.
