< Previous | Contents | Next >
The World Happiness Report 2017 (WHR 2017) was released on 20th March 2017 (the International Day of Happiness) by the Sustainable Development Solution Network (an UN body). The report is a 155-nation survey, fifth of its kind (the first being in 2012)—is the outcome of coalition of researchers.8 The report measures happiness and well-being of the nations to help guide public policy on the basis of the following six parameters:
1. GDP per capita (at PPP)
2. Social support (someone to count on)
3. Healthy life expectancy at birth
4. Freedom to make life choices
5. Generosity
6. Perception of corruption
Major highlights of the WHR 2017 are as given below:
• Norway is the happiest nation in the list followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden (top ten nations). Top ten countries remained the same as WHR 2016 with minor shuffling.
• Some of the important rankings are—Israel (11th), Costa Rica (12th), Austria (13th), United States (14th), Ireland (15th), Germany (16th), UK (19th) and Brazil (22nd).
• Central African Republic is the last in the list (155th) preceded by Burundi, Tanzania, Syria, Rwanda and Togo.
• India ranks at 122nd (118th)—China 79th (83rd), Bhutan 97th (84th), Pakistan 80th (92nd), Nepal 99th (107th), Bangladesh 110th (110th) and Sri Lanka 120th (117th). Rankings of WHR 2016 are given in the brackets.
• Despite recent declines in oil prices, oil-rich Norway still moved into the top spot (from 4th to 1st rank), illustrating once more that high happiness depends on much more than income.
• In rich countries, the biggest single cause of misery is mental illness.
• The falling American happiness (in the last decade) has been primarily due to social rather than to economic causes.
• This year, the report gave special attention to the social foundations of happiness, including happiness at workplace. Happiness is a result of creating strong social foundations, the report adds for which it is time to build ‘social trust’ and ‘healthy lives’, not guns or walls.
• Happiness differs considerably across employment status, job type, and industry sectors. People in well paid roles are happier, but money is only one predictive measure of happiness. work-life balance, job variety and the level of autonomy are other significant drivers.
The efforts of the ‘sub-national governments’ (for example, by the Madhya Pradesh government in India) in this direction have been praised by the report, as experimentation at local levels are more fruitful—such efforts are being supported by the organizations like Happiness Research Institute (Copenhagen) and the Action for Happiness (London)—designed to foster and transmit locally-inspired and delivered innovations in the direction. The report suggests the world governments to restructure their public policies to promote ‘human well-being’—the foundation of happiness.
The word ‘happiness’ is quite complex and is not used lightly. Happiness is an aspiration of every human being, and can also be a measure of social progress. Yet, are the citizens of different countries, happy? If they are not, what, if anything, can be done about it? The key to proper measurement must begin with the meaning of the word ‘happiness’. As per the WHR 2013, the problem, of course, is that happiness is used in at least two ways :
(i) As an emotion [‘Were you happy yesterday?’], and
(ii) As an evaluation [‘Are you happy with your life as a whole?’].
If individuals were to routinely mix up their responses to these very different questions, then measures of happiness might tell us very little. Changes in reported happiness used to track social progress would perhaps reflect little more than transient changes in emotion. Or impoverished persons who express happiness in terms of emotion might inadvertently diminish society’s will to fight poverty. Fortunately, respondents to the happiness surveys do not tend to make such confusing mistakes. Both the WHRs did
show that the respondents of the surveys clearly recognise the difference between happiness as an emotion and happiness in the sense of life satisfaction. The responses of individuals to these different questions are highly distinct. A very poor person might report himself to be happy emotionally at a specific time, while also reporting a much lower sense of happiness with life as a whole; and indeed, people living in extreme poverty do express low levels of happiness with life as a whole. Such answers should spur our societies to work harder to end extreme poverty.
The WHR is based on the primary measures of subjective well-being;9 life evaluations;10 life satisfaction;11 and happiness with life as a whole.12 Thus, happiness, appears twice, once as an emotional report, and once as part of a life evaluation, giving considerable evidence about the nature and causes of happiness in both its major senses.