Abstract: To investigate the effect of economic status on subjective well-being in China, the literature analysis method was used and the related data was processed with frequency statistics and Chi-square test. The analysis of 46 literatures revealed that most studies found the economic status had significant effect on subjective well-being. The unhappiest group was relatively poor or very poor in most studies. A few studies found that economic conditions had no significant effect on subjective well-being and their samples came from developed provinces or their samples’ income was secure. Some researches showed that the relative economic status had greater impact than the absolute economic conditions. Therefore, improving the vulnerable groups’ quality of life, giving close attention to the non-material needs of the people and reducing the income gap between people, will help improve subjective well-being of all classes and promote social harmony.

Key words: subjective well-being, economic status, absolute income, relative income, literature analysis