The World is Actually Getting Happier

Posted by Alex in Politics, Science & Tech on July 2, 2008 at 2:27 am


Every year for 17 years, researchers asked hundreds of thousands of people in 52 countries the same two questions:

"Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy" and " All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"

And despite the current tough economic outlook, they found that happiness is actually on the rise around the world:

"It’s a surprising finding," said University of Michigan political scientist Ronald Inglehart, who headed up the survey. "It’s widely believed that it’s almost impossible to raise an entire country’s happiness level."

Denmark is the happiest nation and Zimbabwe the the most glum, he found. (Zimbabwe’s longtime ruler Robert Mugabe was sworn in as president for a sixth term Sunday after a widely discredited runoff in which he was the only candidate. Observers said the runoff was marred by violence and intimidation.)

The United States ranks 16th.

LinkThanks Geekazoid!


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10 comments to "The World is Actually Getting Happier"

  1. davedonelson
    July 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 am

    Zimbabwe is a perfectly happy place because you don't have to worry about a job, food, health care, money, human rights, or the future--there isn't any.

    Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

  2. bean
    July 2nd, 2008 at 8:17 am

    If they started 17 years ago, that was around the time the Soviet Union officially disbanded. The article doesn't so much as mention Communism, but there are at least a few former Soviet countries that are happier now (Georgia, Czech Republic, Lithuania).

  3. CheeseDuck
    July 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 am

    I love the mountains
    I love the clear blue skies
    I love big bridges
    I love when great whites fly
    I love the whole world
    And all its sights and sounds
    Boom-dee-ah-da, boom-dee-ah-da
    Boom-dee-ah-da, boom-dee-ah-da
    I love the oceans
    I love real dirty things
    I love to go fast
    I love Egyptian kings
    I love the whole world
    And all its craziness
    Boom-dee-ah-da, boom-dee-ah-da
    Boom-dee-ah-da, boom-dee-ah-da
    I love tornadoes
    I love arachnids
    I love hot magma
    I love the giant squids
    I love the whole world
    It's such a brilliant place
    Boom-dee-ah-da, boom-dee-ah-da
    Boom-dee-ah-da, boom-dee-ah-da
    Boom-dee-ah-da, boom-dee-ah-da
    Boom-dee-ah-da, boom-dee-ah-da
    Boom-dee-ah-da, boom-dee-ah-da

  4. l'elk!
    July 2nd, 2008 at 9:05 am

    the world? i think you mean the human species.

  5. Warenwirtschaft
    July 2nd, 2008 at 9:13 am

    I havent found a list of all countries and their positions on your linked article. Am i blind?
    Would be interesting what the other top-countries are.
    And doing a cross-reference with average income etc.

  6. Tiny Dancer
    July 2nd, 2008 at 10:07 am

    Curious as to where Canada ranked, I went looking for more info, too. All roads lead to the World Values Survey (http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/) where you'll find volumes of data to salivate over, but no real "list" that I could find. The most recent ranking I could find was here (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/lif_hap_net-lifestyle-happiness-net  ), a very comprehensive survey site.

  7. Tiny Dancer
    July 2nd, 2008 at 10:08 am

    Curious as to where Canada ranked, I went looking for more info, too. All roads lead to the World Values Survey (www.worldvaluessurvey.org/) where you'll find volumes of data to salivate over, but no real "list" that I could find. The most recent ranking I could find was here (www.nationmaster.com/graph/lif_hap_net-lifestyle-happiness-net), a very comprehensive survey site.

  8. Tiny Dancer
    July 2nd, 2008 at 10:09 am

    Sorry about that! I thought the first version was rejected, so I tossed the http and reposted. My bad.

  9. prophet
    July 2nd, 2008 at 6:59 pm

    I couldn“t see the whole ranking.

  10. MoonCake
    July 3rd, 2008 at 7:09 am

    but is this GENUINE happiness? or could it be due to the fact that hedonism is a social norm these days?


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