Just read some news about a 'world happiness report' that has just come out.

the report is here:
World Happiness Report

one of the outcomes is (happiest on 1 working its way down) on page 30:
1 Denmark
2 Finland
3 Norway
4 Netherlands
5 Canada
6 Switzerland
7 Sweden
8 New Zealand
9 Austria
10 Ireland
11 United States

[cut]

17 UAE
18 UK

I find it interesting enough that someone can come up with a way to compare happiness in a formula as there are so many factors to take into account.

I thought this forum would want to know as we are a collective bunch of nationalities who will undoubtedly have some views as to why the report is wrong or right.

I love seeing the Netherlands beat Belgium, the UK but particularly Germany

Reports like this are, without exception, complete and utter bollocks and exist purely to prevent a bunch of insufferable ****wits from having to get a real job.

I've seen reports like this receive national news coverage when they've only polled a maximum total of 100 people, there's no science to it, it tells us absolutely nothing and serves no purpose whatsoever.

Although I do believe Canadians tend to seem pretty happy...

True, sort of like that slow cousin that doesn't know any better.....

yes we are Jinx, come to papa [Hugs emonticon that's missing there!!!]

I agree, hence my "". Each person has their own priorities in life and if they would do the study again they'd have completely different outcomes, but I thought it was worth mentioning in the Sandpit. We just had a topic about Singapore vs Dubai. These 'professionals' allocate Singapore to number 33 whilst the UAE is at 17.

Interesting to note that 'back home' comes in at number 8 yet having recently come from there (and even more recently visited it), I'm here to tell you that most kiwis are really doing it tough in a struggle street sort of way...
I see the poor old UAE gets a below par 17 and yet I believe nearly everyone here is better off than where they were (or they wouldn't be here?)
So I vote with Gavtek, its a load of shed.
I know I have to go home eventually but I really am very happy here.

__________________
NEARLY two years... do I get a badge?

I do not completely agree with the comment about jobs. The happiness is linked to many factors, but most importantly to the well-being of a person and how that person understands well-being.

I feel Aussies, Canadians and Brazilians are pretty happy people. The well being is immense in Australia and Canada, not so much in Brazil, but you cannot save money there in Australia and Canada thanks to our tax grabbing money system. Again well-being is not about $$$ is about having a set of infrastructural, policies and somewhat also cultural aspects of how a society is built and what values are there.

I also have the feeling that British are negative in general nahh may be I am generalizing, it is my perception anyway. The Japanese are also very unhappy I find ? maybe because they are raised to be extremely competitive ? Idk

Well, I DO have cousins in Canada....

Texas, if it was its own Country instead of part of the United States would rank pretty far up there.



Most of these happiness index things are not very helpful. Especially because happiness is not completely cross-cultural.