Through evaluating many different factors, the country of Bhutan regularly studies the happiness of nations around the world. Bhutan already has their own happiness index, Gross National Happiness . Now it is asking other countries to track their citizens’ happiness and take the “next steps towards realizing the vision of a new well-being”.
According to the World Happiness Report , Denmark has ranked number one as the happiest country in the world for the last six years.
Within the Happiness Report, the “external” happiness factors taken into consideration were income, work, community and governance, and values and religion. The more “personal” features were mental health, physical health, family experience, education, and gender and age.
Polls taken from 2005 to 2011, reported these as the happiest countries:
- Denmark
- Finland
- Norway
- Netherlands
- Canada
- Switzerland
- Sweden
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Ireland
While there are many reasons to be happy, Danes are likely happy (at least in part) due to their higher incomes, limited government, and access to adequate healthcare and education. Yes, in Denmark citizens pay extremely high taxes, but they get a lot in return - medical care and education are paid, policies regarding childcare and parental leave are quite generous, public transport is good, and it’s safe.
In the widest survey attempting to gauge happiness, done by Gallup , people are asked people to rate their lives from 0 to 10. Gallup has found that more than one third of Europeans ranked themselves an 8 or higher, while less than 5% said the same in sub-Saharan Africa.
Interestingly, happiness is not dependent upon economic growth, the report found. As an example, the research found that while U.S. incomes have grown since the 1960s the average happiness hasn't changed. An LA Times article stated, the United States ranks 11th, just after Ireland. The unhappiest countries were Togo (ranked last), Benin, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Comoros, Haiti, Tanzania, Congo and Bulgaria.
After reading the report, it's not hard to notice that the least happy countries are also some of the poorest. The four happiest countries have incomes that are 40 times higher than the four unhappiest countries, the report said. People can also expect to live 28 years longer in the happiest nations.