The World Map of Happiness

[Aunty]

Here's another of these studies that this time ranks countries according to how happy they are as places for their citizens to live in, their тАШsatisfaction with lifeтАЩ.

Turns out that Denmark is the happiest place to live followed by Switzerland (2), Austria (3) and Iceland (4). Burundi is the least happy followed by Zimbabwe (177), The Democratic Republic of the Congo (176) and Moldova (175).

Other rankings are Thailand (76), UK (41), France (62), Germany (35), Belgium (28), Netherlands (15), Ireland (11), Canada (10), USA (23), Australia (26), Hong Kong (63), New Zealand (18), China (82), Japan (90), South Korea (102), Laos (126), Malaysia (17), India (125), and Cambodia (110).

Interesting that by and large most Asian countries rate fair to poorly as happy places for their people to live in, (including Thailand) and that North America is a more happy place for people than are the larger European countries - no surprises there! New Zealand also ranks highly for happiness, more so than Australia, and surprise surprise people experience more satisfaction with their lives in Britain than Thailand, so maybe all the expats living there are in the wrong place!!??


http://www.le.ac.uk/pc/aw57/world/sample.html

[Marsilius]

The fact that the expats who have moved to Thailand were presumably among the least happy with their lives in the UK would mean that the average "happiness quotient" of those Brits remaining in the UK would have thereby been raised.

If the unhappy expats came back, the UK result would only slump again - so there'd be no point!

[cottmann]

Here's another of these studies that this time ranks countries according to how happy they are as places for their citizens to live in, their тАШsatisfaction with lifeтАЩ.

Turns out that Denmark is the happiest place to live followed by Switzerland (2), Austria (3) and Iceland (4). Burundi is the least happy followed by Zimbabwe (177), The Democratic Republic of the Congo (176) and Moldova (175).

Other rankings are Thailand (76), UK (41), France (62), Germany (35), Belgium (28), Netherlands (15), Ireland (11), Canada (10), USA (23), Australia (26), Hong Kong (63), New Zealand (18), China (82), Japan (90), South Korea (102), Laos (126), Malaysia (17), India (125), and Cambodia (110).

Interesting that by and large most Asian countries rate fair to poorly as happy places for their people to live in, (including Thailand) and that North America is a more happy place for people than are the larger European countries - no surprises there! New Zealand also ranks highly for happiness, more so than Australia, and surprise surprise people experience more satisfaction with their lives in Britain than Thailand, so maybe all the expats living there are in the wrong place!!??


http://www.le.ac.uk/pc/aw57/world/sample.html

Compare http://thehappinessshow.com/HappiestCountries.htm - where the happiest country is Nigeria. "The University of Michigan's World Values Surveys (WVS) has compiled data on the happiest countries in the world for over twenty years. Their results are considered the most authoritative by happiness researchers."

[Aunty]

Well I don't know how authoritative it can really be when the list of countries is incomplete! But it does just go to show that with all these types of surveys (including the one on IQ) they are highly dependent upon the assumptions which underpin each study and the questions/surveys and analysis which come about as a result. Nevertheless they are interesting.

The one I linked to I like because it includes some objective measures of each country as a whole, such as life expectancy, access to health care, education, GDP and so on, rather than relying upon a single question (or two) and analysing the subjective responses to that from what is only a small sample of a countryтАЩs population. Maybe the people they survey are not particularly representative of a countryтАЩs entire population?

And Nigeria is the happiest country in the world?? Seems hard to believe IтАЩm afraid. But maybe all those Nigerian scam artists' really are laughing all the way to the bank!

[cottmann]

Here's another of these studies that this time ranks countries according to how happy they are as places for their citizens to live in, their тАШsatisfaction with lifeтАЩ.

Turns out that Denmark is the happiest place to live followed by Switzerland (2), Austria (3) and Iceland (4). Burundi is the least happy followed by Zimbabwe (177), The Democratic Republic of the Congo (176) and Moldova (175).

Other rankings are Thailand (76), UK (41), France (62), Germany (35), Belgium (28), Netherlands (15), Ireland (11), Canada (10), USA (23), Australia (26), Hong Kong (63), New Zealand (18), China (82), Japan (90), South Korea (102), Laos (126), Malaysia (17), India (125), and Cambodia (110).

Interesting that by and large most Asian countries rate fair to poorly as happy places for their people to live in, (including Thailand) and that North America is a more happy place for people than are the larger European countries - no surprises there! New Zealand also ranks highly for happiness, more so than Australia, and surprise surprise people experience more satisfaction with their lives in Britain than Thailand, so maybe all the expats living there are in the wrong place!!??
http://www.le.ac.uk/pc/aw57/world/sample.html

It is worth noting that the data on which the map is based are from the New Economic Foundation, whose most recent pubication on the Happy Planet Index was the subject of an earlier thread - http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/fo ... t8526.html (http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/forum/about8526.html). That publication showed that, around the world, high levels of resource consumption do not reliably produce high levels of well-being (life-satisfaction), and that it is possible to produce high levels of well-being without excessive consumption of the EarthтАЩs resources. Key findings of the Index included that the self appointed world тАШleadersтАЩ тАУ the G8 - score generally badly in the Index: The UK comes a disappointing 108th тАУ with the remainder of the G8 faring little, if at all, better. Italy is 66th, Germany 81st, Japan 95th, Canada 111th, France 129th, United States 150th and Russia 172nd.
I guess if one selects some tables from their NEF study to produce a map, one can prove anything.

[Aunty]

Well I think that just goes to highlight what I said above really doesn't it, which is why none of them should be taken too seriously - and I certainly don't think any of them should be used as a foundation for basing public policy decisions upon.

But it does just go to show that with all these types of surveys (including the one on IQ) they are highly dependent upon the assumptions which underpin each study and the questions/surveys and analysis which come about as a result.

and I certainly don't think any of them should be used as a foundation for basing public policy decisions uponOr wasting space in this Forum

Creature comfort, Interview with a Lion (Puma) in a zoo. http://home.in.tum.de/~paula/mpeg/index.html

and I certainly don't think any of them should be used as a foundation for basing public policy decisions upon

Or wasting space in this Forum.

Why should this be any different from all of the other thousands of topics wasting space here?