happiest countries in the world

[Dead Rabbit]

this is the list of the subjective well-being in 97 countries based on reported happiness and life satisfaction, equally weighted. The rank is stated from happiest to least happy. Negative scores indicates that a majority of the population is unhappy/dissatisfied with life.

It comes from a combined data from 1995 - 2007 World Values Surveys.


I believe this is the survey the economist recently used for their article on the same subject. As you can see, reported happiness seems disconnected from both politics and, to at least some extent, even wealth. So, the top 20 runs the entire gamut of political systems (well, i don't see any theocracies in the top 20). While many in the top 20 are, in fact, euro-socialist, there may obviously be other factors playing a role in this: For example, small and rather homogeneous populations. So, I suppose a xenophobic racist could make the same argument for happiness as the socialist one.

Who do you think was the lowest?

Zimbabwe. Which makes sense, if you’ve read any thing about the downward spiral of life those poor people have had to put up with in the last decade.


Denmark (4.24)
Puerto Rico (4.21)
Colombia (4.18)
Iceland (4.15)
North Ireland (4.13)
Ireland (4.12)
Switzerland (3.96)
Netherlands (3.77)
Canada (3.76)
Austria (3.68)
El Salvador (3.67)
Malta (3.61)
Luxemburg (3.61)
Sweden (3.58)
New Zeland (3.57)
U.S.A. (3.55)
Guatemala (3.53)
Mexico (3.52)
Norway (3.50)
Belgium (3.40)
Britain (3.39)
Australia (3.26

[Dead Rabbit]

i have no idea why random smiley faces `are by certain nations

[Zero]

because "8" and ")" combine to make a smiley 8)

You have to tick the "disable smilies in this post" to get rid of them.

[Pus]

<-- Icelandic of origin.
<-- Lives in Norway.

[Starcadia]

The Human Development Index is similarly interesting.

Edited to show the link that doesn't appear clearly at snuson.

[Slydel]

Where are the countries with negative numbers? Why did you not post the whole list? Also, if the citizens of Mexico are so damn happy, #s close to U.S. citizens, why do they keep coming to the U.S.? Oh...just realized that maybe those Mexican citizens might be receiving a check or cash from their relatives in the U.S. or most Mexican citizens are happier because they are not supporting a welfare state like that of the U.S. I think that U.S. citizens might be happier if their money was not taken from them to support our imperialistic military (or our welfare state). A few years ago I saw the cost per household for supporting the military. The U.S. was about $1000 per year. The only country that was higher was Israel at around $3000. I can not confirm these #s since it has been a while (I tried to do a quick search but was unable to locate the table I saw a few year ago), but I think that they are correct. I am not for a socialist country by any means, but if this money would be used to help, correctly, the unhappy/poor CITIZENS in the U.S. the population might be much happier.

[Dead Rabbit]

Here is the whole list. I am just as baffled as you are about it and take it with a massive truck load of salt.




Denmark (4.24)
Puerto Rico (4.21)
Colombia (4.18)
Iceland (4.15)
North Ireland (4.13)
Ireland (4.12)
Switzerland (3.96)
Netherlands (3.77)
Canada (3.76)
Austria (3.68)
El Salvador (3.67)
Malta (3.61)
Luxemburg (3.61)
Sweden (3.58)
New Zeland (3.57)
U.S.A. (3.55)
Guatemala (3.53)
Mexico (3.52)
Norway (3.50)
Belgium (3.40)
Britain (3.39)
Australia (3.26)
Venezuela (3.25)
Trinidad (3.25)
Finland (3.24)
Saudi Arabia (3.17)
Thailand (3.02)
Cyprus (2.96)
Nigeria (2.82)
Brazil (2.81)
Singapore (2.72)
Argentina (2.69)
Andorra (2.64)
Malaysia (2.61)
West Germany (2.60)
Vietnam (2.52)
France (2.50)
Philippines (2.47)
Uruguay (2.43)
Indonesia (2.37)
Chile (2.34)
Dominican Republic (2.29)
Japan (2.24)
Spain (2.16)
Israel (2.08)
Italy (2.06)
Portugal (2.01)
Taiwan (1.83)
East Germany (1.78)
Slovenia (1.77)
Ghana (1.73)
Poland (1.66)
Czech Republic (1.66)
China (1.64)
Mali (1.62)
Kyrgyzstan (1.59)
Jordan (1.46)
Greece (1.45)
South Africa (1.39)
Turkey (1.27)
Peru (1.24)
South Korea (1.23)
Hong Kong (1.16)
Iran (1.12)
Bangladesh (1.00)
Bosnia (0.94)
Croatia (0.87)
Morocco (0.87)
India (0.85)
Uganda (0.69)
Zambia (0.68)
Algeria (0.60)
Burkina Faso (0.60)
Egypt (0.52)
Slovakia (0.41)
Hungary (0.36)
Montenegro (0.19)
Tanzania (0.13)
Azerbaijan (0.13)
Macedonia (-0.06)
Rwanda (-0.15)
Pakistan (-0.30)
Ethiopia (-0.30)
Estonia (-0.36)
Servian Bosnia (-0.45)
Lithuania (-0.70)
Latvia (-0.75)
Romania (-0.88)
Russia (-1.01)
Georgia (-1.01)
Georgia (-1.01)
Bulgaria (-1.09)
Iraq (-1.36)
Albania (-1.44)
Ukraine (-1.69)
Belarus (-1.74)
Moldova (-1.74)
Armenia (-1.80)
Zimbabwe (-1.92)

[holnrew]

It has West and East Germany on it, so it's almost 20 years out of date...

[Starcadia]

It has West and East Germany on it, so it's almost 20 years out of date...

Long before Norway struck oil.

[Zero]

This study is pretty easy to explain. The researchers intended to make the point that money isn't everything and then craftily manipulated a bunch of statistics until they were vaguely justified in saying so.

I'll eat my hat if Colombia is the third happiest place on the planet. Between the CIA, the FARC, random guerilla groups, cocaine lords, poverty, and, I think, the highest homicide rate in ANY country, you'd have to be missing a few brain cells to think that this was somehow in the medal standings for the title of "paradise on earth".

[snusjus]

Even though this chart is outdated, recent studies have shown that Democratic-Socialist countries have the highest standard of living and happiness compared to the rest of the world, such as France, Sweden, and Norway. I wouldn't be surprised if America is near the bottom, since most Americans are materialistic and equate their happiness with wealth; our crumbling economy is going to perpetuate this unhappiness. As well, America's government favors the rich by exploiting the poor and middle class (the vast majority), by making them pay for military campaigns and corporate welfare (most recently, the $700 billion Wall street bailout).

[Starcadia]

Even though this chart is outdated, recent studies have shown that Democratic-Socialist countries have the highest standard of living and happiness compared to the rest of the world, such as France, Sweden, and Norway. I wouldn't be surprised if America is near the bottom, since most Americans are materialistic and equate their happiness with wealth; our crumbling economy is going to perpetuate this unhappiness. As well, America's government favors the rich by exploiting the poor and middle class (the vast majority), by making them pay for military campaigns and corporate welfare (most recently, the $700 billion Wall street bailout).

Socialism is basically just a system of moderation. I agree that America is setting itself up for profound misery due to its focus on materialism, but until the money that feeds that materialism runs out it will still be high on any list of happiness. When the well dries and materialism fails - and it always does by natural necessity - we will enter adulthood, at which point we would do well to recognize the importance of moderation.

[Jason]

I'll eat my hat if Colombia is the third happiest place on the planet. Between the CIA, the FARC, random guerilla groups, cocaine lords, poverty, and, I think, the highest homicide rate in ANY country, you'd have to be missing a few brain cells to think that this was somehow in the medal standings for the title of "paradise on earth".

LOL, I agree; that HAS to be some sort of typo.

I read somewhere fairly recently that Iceland was actually number one. If they really have dropped down the list, it is probably due to the fact that their economy imploded almost overnight. My dad was in Keflavik while on deployment sometime in the 80's; he really liked it there.

[Starcadia]

Iceland and Norway were tied. I linked to it earlier in the thread.

Zero - Is there a way to make links easier to see? As they are they blend with regular text.

[Zero]

Yeah, it's stuck in the css page and there's not much to do about it save calling attention to it in other ways.