Top 20 Happiest Countries In The World
Based on a report released in 2022
Finland is the happiest country in the world as rated in the World Happiness Report, published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
This report ranks countries based on a formula that calculates the Happy Planet Index score for a country.
The Happy Planet Index score is calculated out of 3 factors
- Life Expectancy (LE)
- Subjective Wellbeing (SW)
- Ecological Footprint (EF)
Happy Planet Index ≈ (LE * SW) / EF
What this Happy Planet Index says is that a country’s life expectancy and subjective wellbeing both may be high; but if the country is putting too much pressure on the planet to get longer lives and happier people, the resultant HPI will not be high.
As per the 2019 data, if you compare data for Costa Rica (Ranked 1st) and New Zealand (Ranked 11th), even though NZ has a better Life Expectancy and Subjective Well-being it was putting more pressure on the planet, and hence Costa Rica got a better rank.
Costa Rica: LE = 80.3 years, SW = 7.00/10 and EF = 2.65 gha/p
NewZealand: LE = 82.3 years, SW = 7.21/10 and EF = 3.87 gha.p
where gha/p is the average amount of land in hectares required per person to sustain a country’s typical consumption patterns
The top 20 countries in the 2022 report are:
- Finland
- Denmark
- Iceland
- Switzerland
- Netherlands
- Luxembourg
- Sweden
- Norway
- Israel
- New Zealand
- Austria
- Australia
- Ireland
- Germany
- Canada
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Czechia (Czech Republic)
- Belgium
- France
There are at least 3 issues that I see with this report:
- Subjectivity — An important factor that determines HPI is Subjective Well-being. As the name of this factor itself suggests, it is highly subjective and may not provide a true indication of a country’s wellbeing.
- Should “Happy” be part of the index name?— The report is published showing a list of “happiest” countries but truly it is determining how countries are contributing towards the sustainability of our planet.
- Poverty not taken into account — I am surprised to see that the index doesn’t take into account the poverty index for a country. While there are many quotes that suggest that happiness doesn’t depend on money, I am of a belief that if one doesn’t have enough money to provide for the basic necessities of life and good health, there is nothing else that can make them happy.
