People in economically advantaged nations tend to evaluate their life as more positive overall and report greater well-being than people in less advantaged nations. But how does this positivity manifest in the daily life experiences of individuals around the world? The present study asked 15,244 college students from 62 nations, in 42 languages, to describe a situation they experienced the previous day using the Riverside Situational Q-sort (RSQ). Using expert ratings, the overall positivity of the situation was calculated for both nations and individuals. The positivity of the average situation in each nation was strongly related to the economic development of the nation as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI). For individuals’ daily experiences, the economic status of their nation was also a strong predictor of the positivity of their experience, even more than their family socioeconomic status. Specific characteristics of the average situations for higher HDI nations revealed what aspects make the experiences more positive. The results illustrate how national economic status can influence the lives of individuals even within a single instance of daily life, with large and powerful consequences when accumulated across individuals within each nation.