NATIONAL RANKINGS

Happiness -- national ranking

The following are results from survey questions asked in various countries in 2005. The Question, "taking all things together, would you say you are: very happy, quite happy, not very happy, or not at all happy?" The following score is the percentage of people who rated themselves minus the percentage who rated themselves unhappy.

1. Iceland, 94 (the bank crisis in 2009 might have reduced this figure)
2. Sweden, 91
3. Denmark, 91
4. Netherlands, 91
5. Australia, 90
6. Ireland, 89
7. Switzerland, 89
8. Norway, 88
9. Britain, 87
10. Venezuela, 87 (a surprise, given some middle class displeasures)

The U.S. was 13th at 84, tied with France. Japan was 19th, at 72. The average was weighted 53.9

China was below average, 49, just ahead of Mexico at 48. India was at 40.

The bottom five: Russia at 2, Ukraine -4, Bellarus -8, Moldova -12, Bulgaria -24.

There is a rough correlation here to per capita GDP -- very rough. Ghana and Nigeria are a little below average, at 43 and 46 respectively, and they rank well below world average in per capita GDP. The happiness average in Nigeria might have fallen recently as a result of Nigerians killing each other.

How much people exaggerated how happy they were out of fear of criticism, political considerations or patriotism is, of course, unknown.

Denmark is known to rank high in happiness from sources other than this survey, most notably Sixty Minutes, despite their 50 percent income tax rate.

SOURCE: Nationmaster.com.

to navigation links at the top