Eric Zuesse<\/p>\n
Results have recently been published from surveys of 68,759 people in 69 countries around the world during 2016 by WIN\/Gallup International, which organization had asked each of these scientifically sampled persons:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn general, do you personally feel very happy, happy, neither happy nor unhappy, unhappy, or very unhappy about your life?\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n The resulting raw percentages were posted online at “WIN\/Gallup International\u2019s 40th Annual Global End of Year Survey\u201d<\/span><\/a>, but the nations weren\u2019t ranked there; W\/G\u2019s report is more like a data-dump than like a report. <\/span><\/p>\n So, based upon their numbers, I have here actually ranked the 69 nations, from the happiest, to the unhappiest, according to WIN\/Gallup\u2019s own calculations of \u201cNet happiness,\u201d which are their study\u2019s bottom-line figures for each nation. WIN\/Gallup says that \u201cNet happiness (happy minus unhappy) globally is +59%,\u201d and this indicates that the world\u2019s average person is happy with his\/her life, but not very happy with it. That\u2019s good performance, but not terrific, worldwide.<\/span><\/p>\n However, as will be explained below this first-ever presentation of W\/G\u2019s rankings, the figures upon which the \u201cNet happiness\u201d calculations were based could be deceptive, because they largely reflect people\u2019s expectations of whether things are getting better in their country, or instead getting worse there; this measure of \u2018happiness\u2019 is an indication \u201cabout your life,\u201d instead of a report that necessarily reflects how they feel right now (or how they did feel at the time they were answering the question). Nobody knows for certain about his\/her \u201clife,\u201d but only about what it was or has been, at times that a pollster\u2019s question might specify in the most recent past, such as \u201cyesterday\u201d \u2014 anything that\u2019s in the future, even \u201ctomorrow,\u201d or the totality of \u201cyour life,\u201d is partly speculative, and might be somewhat unrealistic. (Furthermore, people might be more optimistic in some cultures, and more pessimistic in others, and yet the difference might have little to do with how happy the people there are.) A survey to determine a population\u2019s actual \u201chappiness\u201d shouldn\u2019t invite<\/i> its respondents to be at all speculative. This is a fundamental methodological flaw in the WIN\/Gallup study, but it\u2019s common for pollsters to be so sloppy about wording the questions they\u2019re asking; and no poll-results can be any clearer (i.e., any more meaningful) to interpret, than were the questions which were asked. WIN\/Gallup is normal in this regard. They\u2019d deserve a \u201cC\u201d rating on meaningfulness. But that\u2019s still something; their findings aren’t total trash \u2014 these data weren\u2019t an utter waste of their time and money to produce (and of readers\u2019 attention to consider), but the results do indicate some combination<\/i> of how happy a person is, mixed in with how happy the person expects<\/i> the rest of his\/her life to be. And they should be interpreted in that light.<\/span><\/p>\n Here, then, were the poll\u2019s actual findings:<\/span><\/p>\n NET HAPPINESS RANKINGS, pp. 23-24, WIN\/Gallup Int\u2019l., 2016 end-yr. report:<\/span><\/p>\n 1.Fiji=89%<\/span><\/p>\n 2.Colombia=87%<\/span><\/p>\n 3.China=79%<\/span><\/p>\n 4&5.Indonesia&Vietnam=78%<\/span><\/p>\n 6&7.Panama&Papua=77%<\/span><\/p>\n 8&9.Bangladesh&Paraguay=74%<\/span><\/p>\n 10&11.Argentina&Mexico=72%<\/span><\/p>\n 12.Pakistan=71%<\/span><\/p>\n 13-15.Ecuador&Iceland&Mongolia=70%<\/span><\/p>\n 16.Peru=65%<\/span><\/p>\n 17.Thailand=63%<\/span><\/p>\n 18.Armenia=61%<\/span><\/p>\n 19.Poland=60%<\/span><\/p>\n 20&21.Austria&Brazil=59%=GLOBAL AVERAGE<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n 22-24.Azerbaijan&Denmark&Norway=56%<\/span><\/p>\n 25.Japan=55%<\/span><\/p>\n 26.Sweden=54%<\/span><\/p>\n 27.Slovenia=53%<\/span><\/p>\n 28.Russia=51%<\/span><\/p>\n 29&30.Canada&Portugal=50%<\/span><\/p>\n 31&32.Ireland&Spain=49%<\/span><\/p>\n 33&34.U.S.&Bosnia=48%<\/span><\/p>\n 35&36.Estonia&UK=47%<\/span><\/p>\n 37-40.Belgium&Congo&Germany&Lithuania=46%<\/span><\/p>\n 41.Kosovo=45%<\/span><\/p>\n 42&43.Australia&Ukraine=44%<\/span><\/p>\n 44.France=43%<\/span><\/p>\n 46-49.Ghana&India&IvoryCoast&Macedonia=42%<\/span><\/p>\n 50-52.CzechRepublic.SouthKorea.Latvia=40%<\/span><\/p>\n 53-55.Finland&Italy&Serbia=38%<\/span><\/p>\n 56-58.Lebanon&Palestine&SouthAfrica=37%<\/span><\/p>\n 59.Albania=35%<\/span><\/p>\n 60&61.Israel&Romania=34%<\/span><\/p>\n 62.Bulgaria=33%<\/span><\/p>\n 63.Afghanistan=32%<\/span><\/p>\n 65&65.Iran&Turkey=30%<\/span><\/p>\n 66.Nigeria=29%<\/span><\/p>\n 67.Greece=21%<\/span><\/p>\n 68.HongKong=14%<\/span><\/p>\n 69.Iraq=1%<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n To help understand these findings in perspective, WIN\/Gallup explains:<\/span><\/p>\n The most optimistic countries about economic prosperity are Ghana and Bangladesh (+67% net optimistic each). In contrast, South Korea, Hong Kong and Greece are the most pessimistic (-62%, -56% and -53% respectively).<\/span><\/p>\n On page 6, W\/G shows that, to a large extent, there is a correlation between, on the one hand, a country\u2019s \u201cHappiness Index\u201d (Happiness minus Unhappiness \u201cabout your life\u201d), and, on the other hand, each of two other measures in that poll, both of which were based upon different questions: the \u201cHope Index,\u201d and the \u201cEconomic Optimism Index.\u201d In other words: countries where \u201cHope\u201d and \u201cEconomic Optimism\u201d are high (and this reflects not where people currently are, in their happiness, but where they think<\/i> they are heading<\/i>) are generally scoring high also in W\/G\u2019s \u201cNet Happiness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One might therefore say that Iraqis had the least optimism and hope, whereas Fijians, Colombians, and Chinese, had the most. Of course, if two other countries besides Iraq, which were also recently invaded and destroyed by the U.S. \u2014 such as Syria and Libya \u2014 had been surveyed by W\/G, they might have scored even lower than Iraq did, but Syria and Libya were excluded from W\/G\u2019s poll. So: scoring at the bottom of these 69 countries doesn\u2019t necessarily mean being the worst in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n Generally, high-population countries, such as China, and Indonesia, scored higher in \u201chappiness\u201d than small-population ones, such as Iraq, Hong Kong, and Greece. That fact (plus the favorable global economic trend, that most of the world\u2019s nations are improving economically, not declining) might help to explain why the global average in W\/G\u2019s system is a rather high 59% \u2014 clearly in the positive range of \u201cNet happiness,\u201d or at least of \u201cHope\u201d and of \u201cEconomic Optimism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The fact that U.S., Bosnia, Estonia, and UK, occupy spots 33 through 36, right in the middle of the list of the 69 countries, and yet they have 47% to 48% net-happiness, which is considerably lower than the 59% global average of happiness, is due to the smaller-population countries dominating the lower half of the list, and the larger-population countries dominating the upper half. The bigger-population group above these middle four, tend to be the larger-population countries.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n OTHER RECENT RANKINGS OF NATIONS\u2019 HAPPINESS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n To provide a fuller picture of \u201chappiness\u201d or \u201cwelfare\u201d around the world, the findings by other prominent systems for ranking \u201cHappiness\u201d or \u201cWell-Being\u201d in the world\u2019s nations will here be summarized.<\/span><\/p>\n The U.N. has commissioned annual studies of this, which are done not by WIN\/Gallup, but by the original Gallup organization<\/span><\/a>, which is based in the U.S. The latest of these is the \u201cWorld Happiness Report 2017\u201d<\/span><\/a>, and here are the top 20 in that system:<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Norway (7.537)<\/span><\/p>\n 2. Denmark (7.522)<\/span><\/p>\n 3. Iceland (7.504)<\/span><\/p>\n 4. Switzerland (7.494)<\/span><\/p>\n 5. Finland (7.469)<\/span><\/p>\n 6. Netherlands (7.377)<\/span><\/p>\n 7. Canada (7.316)<\/span><\/p>\n 8. New Zealand (7.314)<\/span><\/p>\n 9. Australia (7.284)<\/span><\/p>\n 10. Sweden (7.284)<\/span><\/p>\n 11. Israel (7.213)<\/span><\/p>\n 12. Costa Rica (7.079)<\/span><\/p>\n 13. Austria (7.006)<\/span><\/p>\n 14. United States (6.993)<\/span><\/p>\n 15. Ireland (6.977)<\/span><\/p>\n 16. Germany (6.951)<\/span><\/p>\n 17. Belgium (6.891)<\/span><\/p>\n 18. Luxembourg (6.863)<\/span><\/p>\n 19. United Kingdom (6.714)<\/span><\/p>\n 20. Chile (6.652)<\/span><\/p>\n Here are the bottom 20 of the 155 nations ranked there:<\/span><\/p>\n 136. Malawi (3.970)<\/span><\/p>\n 137. Chad (3.936)<\/span><\/p>\n 138. Zimbabwe (3.875)<\/span><\/p>\n 139. Lesotho (3.808)<\/span><\/p>\n 140. Angola (3.795)<\/span><\/p>\n 141. Afghanistan (3.794)<\/span><\/p>\n 142. Botswana (3.766)<\/span><\/p>\n 143. Benin (3.657)<\/span><\/p>\n 144. Madagascar (3.644)<\/span><\/p>\n 145. Haiti (3.603)<\/span><\/p>\n 146. Yemen (3.593)<\/span><\/p>\n 147. South Sudan (3.591)<\/span><\/p>\n 148. Liberia (3.533)<\/span><\/p>\n 149. Guinea (3.507)<\/span><\/p>\n 150. Togo (3.495)<\/span><\/p>\n 151. Rwanda (3.471)<\/span><\/p>\n 152. Syria (3.462)<\/span><\/p>\n 153. Tanzania (3.349)<\/span><\/p>\n 154. Burundi (2.905)<\/span><\/p>\n 155. Central African Republic (2.693)<\/span><\/p>\n That report also includes, on page 88, a remarkable table \u201cFigure 4.2: Ranking of Happiness in Africa, 2014-2016,\u201d at the top of which, as the happiest African nations, are (and this notably includes Libya, after the 2011 U.S. invasion):<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Algeria (6.355)<\/span><\/p>\n 2. Mauritius(5.629)<\/span><\/p>\n 3. Libya(5.615)<\/span><\/p>\n 4. Morocco(5.235)<\/span><\/p>\n 5. Somalia(5.151)<\/span><\/p>\n 6. Nigeria(5.074)<\/span><\/p>\n 7. South Africa(4.829)<\/span><\/p>\n 8. Tunisia(4.805)<\/span><\/p>\n 9. Egypt(4.735)<\/span><\/p>\n 10. Sierra Leone(4.709)<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n The U.N.\u2019s Human Development Index rankings, of 188 countries, are a separate such system. Its latest available edition (data from 2015), presents as the topmost countries, which are the ones having the highest \u201cInequality-Adjusted Human Development Index\u201d or IHDI<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n 1.Norway=.898<\/span><\/p>\n 2.Iceland=.868<\/span><\/p>\n 3&4.Australia&Netherlanda=.861<\/span><\/p>\n 5&6.Switzerland&Germany=.859<\/span><\/p>\n 7.Denmark=.858<\/span><\/p>\n 8.Sweden=.851<\/span><\/p>\n 9.Ireland=.850<\/span><\/p>\n 10.Finland=.843<\/span><\/p>\n 11.Canada=.839<\/span><\/p>\n 12.Slovenia=.838<\/span><\/p>\n 13.UK=.836<\/span><\/p>\n