According to the World Happiness Report, Switzerland is now ranked as the happiest country in the world. In previous years, Denmark was ranked as the happiest country but dropped to the third spot this year. The top five happiest countries are Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada while the least happiest countries are Togo, Burundi, Syria, Benin and Rwanda. The United States is 15th. Greece has declined the most in happiness over a period due to the severe recession and social unrest. The report launched in 2012 and is developed by the Sustainable
Development Solutions Network, an initiative under the United Nations. The rankings are based on data from the Gallup World Poll and measures variables such as real GDP per capita, social capital, healthy life expectancy, corruption levels and social freedoms. The 2015 report is the first to assess gender and age as well. Women found their well-being to be slightly stronger than those of men. The idea to measure contentment in the population rather than just wealth has proved popular in recent years. Furthermore, it is important to take note of the strength of a society and the strength of economies when considering the well-being of a population.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/23/swiss-reign-supreme-in-world-happiness-ranks
12 comments:
Interesting article. The story was put out before elections in Togo, where for 48 years there has been one family in power. With little research and after reading "Why Nations Fail" I think it's safe to assume that the family ruling Togo are the only ones happy. Good for Switzerland, I'm sure not having major political affiliations with has a lot to do with them being so happy.
It surprises me that the US is as low as 15. In terms of GDP per capita and social freedoms, the US should fair well. I’m assuming that income inequality is the factor holding them back. Countries such as Denmark and Norway redistribute income with higher taxes more so than the US and have much closer incomes throughout the country.
I wonder why Denmark has dropped to third spot? Is it because of Socio-Economic reasons?
Based on the results, it does seem income equality is the main indicator that defines a country's happiness ranking.
This is an interesting article. It seems that the perceptions of corruption is higher in the Top 10 countries, that in the Bottom 10. Based on "Why Nations Fail", corruption was linked to poorer nations but this does not seem to be the case.
Jonel raises some interesting points. I don't believe that this article discusses many new things, but it does provide some data to support the general notion raised in class about general well-being. I want to see how corruption was calculated, nonetheless, fascinating read.
This is an intriguing article and personally I find it interesting knowing which countries are ranked the happiest and least happiest. I do agree that economic inequality can hinder a country's rank for happiness. Good for Switzerland for becoming the happiest country in the world. It will be interesting to see how these rankings will change in the future.
Income inequality plays a large part of these rankings and that is why we see the United States only at 15 on this list. As stated by Kevin, Denmark and Norway redistribute their income through higher taxes and that is why they are ranked so high on this list in my eyes.
I'm glad that the contentment of the people is assessed although I'd like to know how it is assessed. If there are pockets of people in a country, like the United States, who are very unhappy despite the majority being happy with their life situation and the country's overall GDP per capita, life expectancy, corruption levels ,etc being considered good for the country. How do they access overall contentment?
I dont think this study is very legit because happiness is very subjective and vary across individuals' life. those variables such as GDP per capita, social capital, healthy life expectancy, corruption levels and social freedoms may be correlated to "contentment" but correlation does not mean causation.
i pose the same questions as Alicia especially after talking to people from Burundi and Rwanda. I can very easily believe the top countries but I am not too sure about the bottom countries. Lilly brings up a good point as well, happiness is very individualistic.
Although I agree that happiness is individualistic but the article looks at the overall average of happiness in different countries and then ranks them based on the result. Also, it does seem realistic that currently people in Scandinavian countries would be among the happiest.
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