Speaking of The Geography of Bliss (in which author Eric Weiner travels the world to see where people are happiest), I was reminded of the world map of happiness (scroll down in the BBC’s article to download map). First created in 2006 by Adrian White of the UK’s University of Leicester, the map used responses from 80,000 people worldwide to map out world happiness, or as they say in the field, subjective well being.
White noted, “There is a belief that capitalism leads to unhappy people. However, when people are asked if they are happy with their lives, people in countries with good healthcare, a higher GDP per capita, and access to education were much more likely to report being happy. The frustrations of modern life, and the anxieties of the age, seem to be much less significant compared to the health, financial and educational needs in other parts of the world.”
While happiness levels may have shifted in the last 3 years, it’s interesting to note that in 2006, Western European countries garnered most of the top spots, though two nations in Latin American and the Caribbean made it into the top 15–the Bahamas at number 5 and Costa Rica at number 13. The USA didn’t do too badly, weighing in at number 23.
The 20 happiest nations in the World were:
1 – Denmark
2 – Switzerland
3 – Austria
4 – Iceland
5 – The Bahamas
6 – Finland
7 – Sweden
8 – Bhutan
9 – Brunei
10 – Canada
11 – Ireland
12 – Luxembourg
13 – Costa Rica
14 – Malta
15 – The Netherlands
16 – Antigua and Barbuda
17 – Malaysia
18 – New Zealand
19 – Norway
20 – The Seychelles
Other notable results included:
23 – USA
35 – Germany
41 – UK
62 – France
82 – China
90 – Japan
125 – India
167 – Russia
The three least happy countries were:
176 – Democratic Republic of the Congo
177 – Zimbabwe
178 – Burundi
Method
The 2006 world map of happiness used data from he Veenhoven Database of World Happiness (which Eric Weiner visits while researching The Geography of Bliss), along with UNESCO, the CIA, the New Economics Foundation, the WHO, the Latinbarometer, the Afrobarometer, and the United Nations Development Program.
