[Graeme]

Psychologist Produces The First-ever 'World Map Of Happiness'

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')drian White, an analytic social psychologist at the University's School of Psychology, analysed data published by UNESCO, the CIA, the New Economics Foundation, the WHO, the Veenhoven Database, the Latinbarometer, the Afrobarometer, and the UNHDR, to create a global projection of subjective well-being: the first world map of happiness.

"There is increasing political interest in using measures of happiness as a national indicator in conjunction with measures of wealth. A recent BBC survey found that 81% of the population think the Government should focus on making us happier rather than wealthier.

"Further analysis showed that a nation's level of happiness was most closely associated with health levels (correlation of .62), followed by wealth (.52), and then provision of education (.51).

"We were surprised to see countries in Asia scoring so low, with China 82nd, Japan 90th and India 125th. These are countries that are thought as having a strong sense of collective identity which other researchers have associated with well-being.

"It is also notable that many of the largest countries in terms of population do quite badly. With China 82nd, India 125th and Russia 167th it is interesting to note that larger populations are not associated with happy countries."

The 20 happiest nations in the World are:

[WildRose]

I'm not at all surprised that many of the Scandinavian/northern European countries are in the top 10.

[mmasters]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', '[')b]Psychologist Produces The First-ever 'World Map Of Happiness'

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')A recent BBC survey found that 81% of the population think the Government should focus on making us happier rather than wealthier.

[emersonbiggins]

Well, great, Greenland gets slapped in the face AGAIN.

[emersonbiggins]

No map is complete without:

[Denny]

It is interesting to note that many parts of the GDP calculation are measures of distress, not success. Such as:

- Military spending
- Locks and security systems
- Police force
- Lawyers
- Courts
- Liability Insurance


In a real dream world, all those activities above would be non-existent. I'd include medicine too, but that deals with the forces of nature, whereas those above are mostly human behavioral concerns.

Imagine what a share these make up of most countries GDP, especially the most developed.

[Kingcoal]

I guess nothing is rotten in Denmark after all.