Population happiness

Your nation's population happiness is the primary factor in determining the amount of money your people make and thus the amount of taxes you can collect from them. The default population happiness level is 0. The higher the number, the happier your people are. To see the number, highlight the area next to the smiley (or unhappy) face representing your population happiness (press Ctrl+A). This number is affected by several factors (incomplete and not necessarily accurate list):


 * Population desired religion vs actual national religion.
 * Population desired government vs actual national government.
 * Certain government type bonuses.
 * Population density – Citizens like room to stretch out.
 * Size and strength of military – Citizens like to feel protected (but not too protected).
 * Recent Military casualties – High casualties increase war weariness (-2 happiness).
 * Military deployed – Too many deployed troops also increases war weariness.
 * Military too large - less than 20% or greater than 80% of working citizens.
 * Infrastructure level – Infrastructure helps increase happiness.
 * Nation age – Citizens prefer the stability of older nations.
 * Technology Level
 * Resources
 * Environment
 * Random Events
 * Nation Improvements
 * DEFCON Level
 * Peace or War Preference - Extended peace hurts happiness
 * Government tax rate – Citizens prefer to pay lower taxes.

Effects of happiness
The most important effect of population happiness is an increase in your nation’s average gross income per individual per day (+$2.00 per happiness level). The happier your citizens are, the harder they work; the harder they work, the more money you’ll have to improve your nation.

Levels of happiness

 * -8 to -5? Your Population is Furious
 * 13 to 16? You Population Adores You
 * 17 to 24 Your Population is in Love With You.

If I raise my tax rate do I actually make less money due to my population becoming unhappy?
Raising your tax rate can hurt your population happiness (see page for details). However, the gains from the higher tax rate may outweigh the losses from the lower happiness, or it may not. Check your "Collect Taxes" page to be sure. The only effect that population happiness has on the game is how much money your nation is making from taxes. If you make more money by choosing higher taxes at the cost of a more unhappy population, then it is in your best interest to raise the taxes.

My alliance has done some calculations regarding taxes in order to balance extra money made from higher taxes to higher happiness from lower taxes:
 * Step 1: Set your taxes to 10%
 * Step 2: Look at your Gross Income, and remember it.
 * Step 3: Compare it to the following chart, and set your taxes to the designated level.


 * Tax Percentage***Gross Income
 * 16% *** Under $10 Gross
 * 20% *** Between $10 Gross and $32.66 Gross
 * 23% *** Between $32.66 Gross and $50.80 Gross
 * 28% *** Anything over $50.80 Gross.