Day 4: Happyconomics
What is Happiness and How is it Measured?
Happiness can be seen as the satisfaction of one’s life and the satisfaction of the relationships that they have. The country of Bhutan was the first to attempt to measure their Gross National Happiness, rather than Gross National Product, as a measure for their success and productivity. Through these measures of happiness, people realized that although on average, richer people and countries are happier, there is a certain point in an individual’s income when an additional amount of money will no longer make them feel better about their lives. Therefore, happiness is calculated through the compound index of:
- GDP per Capita
- Healthy life expectancy
- Freedom to make life choices
- Social support
- Generosity
- Absence of corruption
2020 World Happiness Report- Rankings
As of 2020, the happiest three countries are:
- Finland
- Denmark
- Norway
There has been a trend for Nordic countries to consistently place extremely high in these rankings. In Finland's case, their overall happiness is the highest due to the environment the government has created for its population. Although they have high taxes, people are happy to pay it because of all the advantages they get in other aspects of their lives. They have free healthcare, additional parental leave, and when a mother gives birth, they receive helpful gifts for their babies. The free education and the sense of trust in most of their neighbourhoods also is a significant factor to their general happiness.
The bottom three countries were:
- Afghanistan
- Central African Republic
- South Sudan
When I saw that the UK placed 15th in the report, I was not very surprised, because when I thought about it, there is lots of diversity and opportunity in the UK, along with free health care, the NHS.
The Importance of Measuring Happiness
In my opinion, measuring happiness is extremely important, because it can lead to a necessary change. Happiness is the most important thing for someone to lead a good life, and that is what countries should be aiming for. The USA, for instance, are second in GDP ranking, yet are 19th in the 2020 world happiness report. This reflects how there is obvious room for improvement and therefore could lead to a positive change in how they spend their money.
