Happiness is a description for how happy or angry your populations are. Each planet's population shows an approximation of the happiness level of that population. Different events which occur throughout your empire can effect this happiness. A high level of happiness means increased production for your planet. An unhappy population means reduced production and the chance of a riot. Once a riot occurs, your planet will no longer produce resources or construct any new items. You can quell the riot by putting troops on the planet or by putting ships in orbit.

Keep in mind that the Happiness Modifiers displayed below are for a "Peaceful" racial happiness type. Since you can pick others for your race, those different racial happiness types can react to events differently. For example, the "Bloodthirsty" racial happiness type causes the worlds of your empire to grow happier for a declaration of War. This is because your people love battle and respond to it in a positive manner. A "Peaceful" people on the other hand, do not like to be at war, and will react negatively to a declaration of war. The racial happiness type for a race is selected in the Empire Setup - Description window.

The following events will cause all of the planets throughout your empire to grow more angry: Homeworld Lost, Any planet lost, Any of our planets captured, Any ship lost, New bad treaty (War, Non-Intercourse, Subjugation, Protectorate)