And finally…Dundonians are Scotland’s ‘richest’

The scientists at Mindlab said those looking for optimum “richness” in Scotland can find it by living in Dundee and earning less than £35,000 a year as a fisherman.

The study, conducted by psychologist Dr David Lewis and his team, claims success and richness are no longer evaluated purely by money.

In fact, the boffins say that “true richness” has very little to do with cold hard cash.

The team found that those working in fishing and forestry lead richer lives than those in business and financial operations, and people earning less than £35,000 a year outstripped high earners taking home up to £200,000.

In Scotland, Dundonians came out top in terms of richness and fulfilment, followed by people from Edinburgh then Glasgow.

The study asked 2,000 people about their attitudes towards life and contentment, coupled with information such as occupation, income, family status and home town.

The variables in the formula compiled by the team included people’s attitudes to planning, confrontation, success, perfection, money, family, leisure time and materialism.

What it revealed was that people who can enjoy the imperfections in life are the richest, those who cherish mistakes are richer than meticulous planners, and richer individuals value memories over possessions.

Highest scorer on the happiness scale of richness and fulfilment were people aged over 65; those living in Wales, the south-east of England and Yorkshire; married couples with two children; people earning between £20,000 and £34,999, and fishermen and foresters.

Dr Lewis, of research consultancy Mindlab, who calculated the formula, said: “Our research has revealed some fascinating insights into how rich people view their lives to be.

“We used quadratic mathematical modelling to find the ‘formula for true richness’, or, in other words, what combination of attitudes towards life is found in the happiest people.

“During the interviews, 59 per cent of people said the best things in life are free, citing their families and happy memories as their most treasured possessions.”

Low scorers according to Dr Lewis’ formula included 35 to 44 year-olds; Londoners; singletons; bankers, and those earning between £150,000 and £199,999.