According to a U.S. analysis published on Monday, China's economic growth over the last 20 years has generally been met with declining happiness, AFP reported.

The study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is based on six different surveys on self-reported satisfaction with life since 1990, a period when China's gross domestic product per capita increased fourfold.

In 1990, 68 percent of those in the wealthiest income bracket and 65 percent of those in the poorest reported high levels of satisfaction. But the latter figure has fallen more than 23 percentage points in the past two decades.

Only 42 percent of Chinese people in the lowest income bracket reported high levels of life satisfaction in 2010. Meanwhile, the wealthiest Chinese who said they were satisfied with their lives grew about three percentage points, to 71 percent.