A GEOGRAPHY of happiness exists. Seven of the 10 happiest countries form a tight cluster in Western Europe. Of the top 10, only Canada, Australia, and New Zealand exist outside that cluster.
Likewise, nine of the 10 least happy countries belong to the same region. Only Syria falls outside of it. The other nine are all in Africa.
What about us? In 72nd place, the Philippines sits just a little above the median in the World Happiness Report 2017, between Hong Kong and Serbia. But we also belong to the 20 countries where “life evaluations” increased, based on the surveys from 2005-2007 and from 2014-2016.
About 1,000 of these “life evaluations” in each of at least 150 countries form the bedrock of the report, which the United Nations released last March 20, International Day of Happiness. Some of the findings seem obvious. For example: “Higher wages are indeed predictive of greater well-being.” Money does buy happiness, but only part of it.
A decent income is one of six variables that, according to the World Happiness Report, explain why some countries are happier than others and grow happier over time. But higher income, measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, didn’t automatically make countries happier.
China’s GDP has soared for nearly three decades, yet if its average life evaluation is any gauge, its people are not happier than they were in 1990. This, the report said, was one more sign that measuring happiness (also known as “subjective well-being”) is more meaningful than merely GDP, if policymakers are to make any progress in raising people’s well-being. (The World Happiness Report is like self-help for societies.)
What’s also curious is that none of the 10 happiest countries are among the 10 richest countries, at least based on the CIA World Fact Book’s estimated GDP per capita list for 2016. At $87,100, Singapore’s GDP per capita is fifth highest worldwide. Singaporeans in 2016 made more money than residents of the 10 happiest countries, where the per capita GDP ranged from $37,100 (New Zealand, eighth happiest) to $69,300 (Norway, the world’s happiest). Yet Singapore landed only 26th in the latest World Happiness Report.
Hong Kong, at $58,100, also has a higher GDP per capita than eight of the 10 happiest economies, but is only a spot ahead of us on the Happiness Report. The Philippines has an estimated GDP per capita of $7,700, and is 154th on the global list. So, Hong Kong’s residents made six times more money than Filipinos did, yet we are practically tied in terms of happiness.
What, then, are the world’s happiest countries doing right? For one, they are welfare states with generous state support for health care and basic education. There’s a price to pay, of course: their average personal income tax rate is 46 percent. But another quality these countries share is minimal corruption. They’re among the 14 countries with the best scores in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2016.
At the risk of oversimplifying things, the world’s happiest countries use most of their public resources in chipping away at the barriers that bring people misery: poverty, joblessness, and both physical and mental illness.
In the world’s happiest countries, people also felt free; had at least one person to count on in times of hardship; were encouraged and could afford to be generous; and believed that they could trust their governments and other institutions.
(For the full report, edited by John Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey Sachs, go to http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2017/.)