Happiness is ...being Healthy, Wealthy and Wise, not Being Equal.
The world has never been so happy, study says - Telegraph
The world has never been a happier place, according to a survey of global wellbeing which has ranked Denmark as the most content nation.
Denmark scored highest marks thanks to its peaceful atmosphere, democracy and social equality.
Wooa! Denmark has been voted happiest many times over the years, but where did that bit of editorialisation about social equality come from?
Lets look at the rest of the top five:
2 - Puerto Rico
3 - Colombia
4 - Iceland
5 - N Ireland
Do "peaceful atmosphere, democracy and social equality" come to mind? No. "Social equality" is not a factor - the boffins at the University of Leicester say:
"..a nation's level of happiness was most closely associated with health levels (correlation of .62), followed by wealth (.52), and then provision of education (.51).
"The three predictor variables of health, wealth and education were also very closely associated with each other, illustrating the interdependence of these factors.
“There is a belief that capitalism leads to unhappy people. However, when people are asked if they are happy with their lives, people in countries with good healthcare, a higher GDP per captia, and access to education were much more likely to report being happy.
“We were surprised to see countries in Asia scoring so low, with China 82nd, Japan 90th and India 125th. These are countries that are thought as having a strong sense of collective identity which other researchers have associated with well-being.
"It is also notable that many of the largest countries in terms of population do quite badly. With China 82nd, India 125th and Russia 167th it is interesting to note that larger populations are not associated with happy countries."
"Happiness is ...being Healthy, Wealthy and Wise" and not living in a large population socialist superstate made up of different countries, - anyone listening in Brussels?