Happiness By Country

Happiness By Country: An Introduction

The Dalai Lama’s official Facebook page (Llama 2013)

Happiness is an ideal that many strive for in life. In fact, some nations has mentioned the pursuit of happiness in their constitutions, such as the United States and Bhutan. While others like Brazil are considering to add happiness to their constitution. The discussion surrounding happiness is thus worthy of our attention because of its importance to the citizens of the world and the impact it has on global politics. It is essential to understand the variables that allow some countries to be so successful and happy, while others struggle daily just to survive, in order to see how happiness plays a role in the overall picture of our world. Everyone has an interest in being happy, so this is a topic that is relevant to every human being.  

             Our focus for this project will be on the major regions of Scandinavia, Asia, and South America. We will employ a specific focus in the nations of Bhutan in Asia, Finland and Denmark in Scandinavia, and Brazil in South America. We have chosen to focus on these areas

and nations, because of their strides towards achieving a high national happiness ranking. We will be evaluating the workings of culture, history, and governance, and how they shape a nation’s worldview. In what ways do a country’s laws and authority relate to the satisfaction of its people?  How does its cultural history have an affect on the country’s current well-being and stance in the world?  By examining countries with high populations of happy citizens and ones without, we will gain a better understanding of why people in some countries are happier than others, and what may be the best way to structure a successful country.

To begin, we examine how events may affect the happiness of a country, which in turn also affects its overall stance in the world. War and injustices committed by governments have highly influenced the happiness of citizens, and the socio-economic success of countries. As of right now, the unhappiest countries are mostly found in the war-torn Middle East. Despite them having relatively high GDPs, [Iran is in the top 30 highest GDPs in the world] and a myriad of natural resources, the area’s citizens are emotionally distressed as a result of war and unjust laws. According to the Gallop Poll dated in June of 2014, Iraq was declared the unhappiest nation, and was closely followed by Iran. In Katherine Faulders’ article, “Iraq, Iran Top World’s Unhappiest Countries List,” she states that both of these nations [Iraq and Iran] reported “a lot of anger, stress, sadness, physical pain and worry”. Based off of these statistics, we can see how happiness has played and can play an influential part in the development, as well as the overall status of a country on the global stage. Countries who endured more war and distress developed differently than a country without these hardships.

This desire for happiness amongst people isn’t a recent development, but dates back to the early ages of philosophers and religious leaders such as Aristotle, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius and more. For Aristotle happiness was achieved by virtuous actions, while for Confucius happiness was not a state of being or an attainment of a certain emotion, but an "ethical response to features of the world"(qtd. in Keener). As for Buddha, happiness begins with understanding the causes of suffering. One can end suffering by following the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Paths. The measurement of happiness is approached differently in most cultures, which leads to the difficult question of how we measure happiness and what is the best way to attain it. Throughout this project, we will focus in on the ways that some countries measure happiness and how that ranks them on the global stage of “happiness”.

Due to a global desire for happiness, there has recently been an influx of lists in order to determine happiness [the Gallup Poll, Prosperity Group List, The United Nation’s World Happiness report, and many others]. The Gallup Poll is based on interviews asking 1000 citizens of a country how happy and positive they are; South American countries tend to be the happiest in the Gallup Poll. The Prosperity Group List is based on GDP, economy, jobs, education, health, safety, freedom, and government; countries from the Scandinavian region tend to be the happiest in this poll. The United Nations poll focuses on life expectancy, corruption, GDP, freedom, support, and generosity; the results are similar to those of the Prosperity Group list, with the Scandinavian countries leading in happiness, but also includes more South American countries in the top 20 [which the Prosperity Poll does not rank].

So why are some countries so much happier than others? Throughout this project we will examine this question and delve deep into the inner most workings of why some countries thrive in the department of well-being and others do not. The happiness of a country tends to be easily overlooked as a factor of political and global importance. However, if we take time to reflect on it, happiness is perhaps the only thing that matters in terms of a country’s overall well-being. When well-being and happiness are not a priority, and are eschewed in favor of profit, problems begin to emerge within a population. With so much attention lent to the issues of our world, one may pleasantly take a step back to evaluate what is working well within a government to promote peace, prosperity, and ultimately the population’s happiness.

National Happiness Ranking Map (Dewey 2013).

Works Cited:

Clifton, J. (2014, May 21). People Worldwide Are Reporting A Lot of Positive Emotions. Gallup.com. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.gallup.com/poll/169322/people-worldwide-reporting-lot-positive-emotions.aspx.

“Denmark Is Considered The Happiest Country. You'll Never Guess Why.” (2013). Huffington Post: The Third Metric. Retrieved October 16, 2014 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/22/denmark-happiest-country_n_4070761.html.

Dewey, C. (2013, September 10). A fascinating map of the world’s happiest and least happy countries. TheWashingtonPost.com. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/09/10/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-happiest-and-least-happy-countries/.

Faulders, Katherine (2014). “Iraq, Iran Top World’s Unhappiest Countries List”. ABC News. Retrieved October 16, 2014 from http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/06/iraq-iran-top-worlds-unhappiest-countries-list/.

Gross National Happiness (2014). “Good Governance and Gross National Happiness”. Gross National Happiness. Retrieved from October 17, 2014 from http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/9-domains/good-governance-and-gross-national-happiness/.

Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (2013). World Happiness Report 2013. UNSDSN.org. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://unsdsn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/WorldHappinessReport2013_online.pdf.

“History of Happiness” (2014). Pursuit-of-Happiness.org. Retrieved October 16, 2014 from http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/.

Huffington Post. (2014). “What Brazil Can Teach The World About Living Well”. Huffington Post: The Third Metric. Retrieved October 16, 2014 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/what-brazil-can-teach-the_0_n_4662253.html.

Kelly, Annie. (2012). “Gross National Happiness in Bhutan: The Big Idea from a Tiny State That Could Change the World”. The Guardian. Retrieved October 16, 2014 from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/01/bhutan-wealth-happiness-counts.

Lama, D. [Dalai]. (2013, July 2). Everyone wants a happy life without difficulties or suffering. [Facebook status update]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/DalaiLama/posts/10151506781277616.

Legatum Institute. (2013). The 2013 Legatum Prosperity Index. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.prosperity.com/#!/.

Rattner, Ron. (2011). “Why Does Everyone Want Happiness?”. Silly Sutras. Retrieved October 16, 2014 from http://sillysutras.com/why-does-everyone-want-happiness/.

Sibaja, Michael. (2011). “Brazil Considers Adding ‘Happiness’ To Constitution”. Huffington Post. Retrieved October 17, 2014 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/02/brazil-happiness-constitution_n_817397.html.

Slauter, Eric. (2011). “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. The Boston Globe. Retrieved October 17, 2014 from http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/07/03/life_liberty_and_the_pursuit_of_happiness/?page=1.

Sood, Suemedha. (2011). “Why Are the Finns So Happy”. BBC Travel. Retrieved October 16, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20110622-travelwise-why-are-finns-so-happy.

The United Nations Statistic Division. “GDP/Breakdown at Current Prices in US Dollars (All Countries)” (2012). The United Nations. Retrieved October 16, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)#cite_note-12.

“What Role Have Natural Resources Played in the Politics and Economy of the Middle East?” (2002). PBS: Global Connections KQED. Retrieved October 16, 2014 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/questions/resource/.