Who is Truly Happy? Latest UN Statistics

[Guest fountainhall]

When the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan introduced the concept of GNH – Gross National Happiness – as being more important than GNP – Gross National Product – back in the early 1970s, those who had even heard of the country dismissed the concept as a laughable.

 

Not any more!

 

Even the United Nations has started to compile statistics based on happiness and life fulfillment. According to the recently published UN World Happiness Report, you will enjoy life far more if you are based in Northern Europe, where Denmark, Finland and Norway head the list, closely followed by The Netherlands. Canada comes 5^th, Switzerland 6^th with New Zealand and Australia and 8^th and 9^th respectively.

 

Oddly, Ireland, which remains an economic basket case, ranks 10^th. The USA comes in at 11, Israel at 14 and the UK at 18.

 

In Asia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam and Hong Kong, in that order, are further down the list. Interestingly. Iraq scores higher than The Philippines, a statistic which baffles me! And amazingly, Bhutan which introduced the GNH idea is not even included!

 

The author of the UK World Happiness Report, Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University –

 

found happiness could be achieved independently of a country’s economic performance. He argued: “The US has had a three-time increase of gross national product per capita since 1960, but the happiness needle hasn’t budged.”

 

. . . Mr Sachs added that economic development led to problems such as eating disorders, obesity, diabetes, gambling problems and tobacco-related illnesses.

 

He also warned there were wider social issues associated with economic growth, including “the loss of community, the decline of social trust, and the rising anxiety levels associated with the vagaries of the modern globalised economy”.

 

One reason why Britain is so far down the scale is understood to be due to the relatively high level of family breakdown.

 

The table was created by the UN, which compiled worldwide survey responses from 2005 until mid-2011 to determine the happiness level of 156 different countries.

 

http://www.telegraph...ess-Report.html

http://documents.lat...ppiness-report/

[kokopelli]

The Finns can't be too happy since their suicide rank is #10 in the world.