Salon –

Back in 2004, they examined the data on the self-reported levels of sexual activity and happiness of 16,000 people and found that sex “enters so strongly (and) positively in happiness equations” that they estimate that getting it on just once a month more is equivalent to the amount of happiness generated by receiving an additional $50,000 in income for the average American.

Their paper, “Money, Sex, and Happiness: An Empirical Study,” which appeared in the National Bureau of Economic Research, not only estimates the dollar amount that happiness from sex can bring you, but it also debunks the old myth that having more money means that you’ll have more sex. In fact, Blanchflower and Oswald find that there’s zero difference in the frequency of sex from one income level to the next. But they do find that sex appears to bring more happiness to highly educated people than those with lower educational status, which roughly corresponds to economic status.

The long and short of it is that the happiest people are those that are having the most sexytime, though it’s not clear whether sex leads to happiness or if happy people just have more sex.

This is likely even more significant given that there appears to be a threshold of earning that, once you cross such, happiness seems to be reduced by more money and, sadly, many are too burnt out to even bother having sex.