This paper analyzes the impact of digital economic development on residents’ happiness of life, and empirically tests this impact using CGSS data and province-level digital economic development indices from 2011-2018. It is found that digital economic development significantly enhances Chinese residents’ happiness of life. Further mechanism analyses find that digital economic development enhances residents’ happiness of life by increasing their annual personal income and reducing environmental pollution. Heterogeneity analyses show that digital economic development enhances urban residents’ happiness of life more than rural residents’, and enhances eastern residents’ happiness of life more than central and western residents’. Our research provides direct evidence that the development of digital economy enhances people’s happiness, but the regional imbalance of the development of digital economy has led to the “happiness effect” not being universally demonstrated. Therefore, strengthening the development of the digital economy in rural areas and central and western regions in China would increase the income of the residents in these regions, and thus enhance their sense of acquisition and happiness.