WHERE IS THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH?
On March 20, the United Nations celebrated its third annualInternational Day of Happiness.
So, Belated Happy International Day of Happiness!
The UN created the holiday to include happiness as anindicator as to how we are succeeding as a global community.
In 2012, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, said thatfor too long the world has used Gross National Product (GNP) to measure thewell-being of a ｃountry’s population. In other words, the amount of moneypeople made. Money certainly does help a ｃountry’s and a person’s well-being.But it is not the only factor.
So, you might be asking, where are the happiest people onthe planet?
Gallup poll finds Latin America is a very happy place
If you live in Latin America, chances are you are happy,according to Gallup’s “Positive Experience Index.” This Gallup index found thatday-to-day people in Latin America are some of the happiest people on theplanet.
In fact, for the first time in Gallup's 10-year history ofglobal tracking of happiness, all of the top 10 ｃountries with the highest“Positive Experience Index” scores are in Latin America.
Here they are in descending order of happiness:
1. Paraguay
2. Colombia
3. Ecuador
4. Guatemala
5. Honduras
6. Panama
7. Venezuela
8. Costa Rica
9. El Salvador
1 Nicaragua
Gallup representatives asked adults in 143 ｃountries thefollowing questions: “Did you feel well-rested yesterday?” “Were you treatedwith respect all day yesterday? “Did you smile or laugh a lot?” “Did you learnor do something interesting?”
They compiled the “yes” responses from these questions intowhat they call a “Positive Experience Index” score for each ｃountry.
The index score for the world in 2014 is 71. This number hasremained steady through the years. More than 70% of people worldwide said theyhad fun, smiled or laughed a lot, felt well rested and respected.
Gallup gathered the information from face-to-face and phoneinterviews with about 1,000 adults from each ｃountry. They spoke with people inboth rural and urban areas.
It is perhaps not surprising that places that experiencedconflict such as South Sudan and Ukraine and places that suffered or aresuffering from Ebola scored quite low on the “Positive Experience Index.”
However, even in places where the fewest people reportedhaving positive emotions such as Afghanistan, the majority of people still saidthey smiled or laughed a lot the day before the Gallup interview.
Gallup found that the area of the world with the lowestpositive emotions is in the Middle East and North Africa region. However,Gallup did not gather data from several ｃountries in the Middle East in time tobe included in the 2014 results. For example, data from Bahrain, Oman, Qatar,Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are not included. The UAE usually scoreswell on happiness surveys.
Last year, Syria had the lowest positive emotion points everreported. Syria is not included in this year’s study as data was not availableat the time the Gallup report was written.
Gallup’s happiness poll also found that having money is notnecessarily the key to happiness. Guatemala is one of the poorest ｃountries inthe world in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but ties for second when itcomes to positive emotions.
The United Nations did a much larger survey in 2013 calledthe World Happiness Report. Chances are Latin America ｃountries will not behappy with this report.
The authors of this UN report considered factors such ashealthy life expectancy at birth, freedom to make life choices, a ｃountry’ssocial support systems and experience with corruption. They also used someGallup poll results on happiness.
The authors of the larger UN study say it is important whenyou measure for happiness that you separate happiness as an emotion andhappiness as an evaluation of a person’s well-being.
For example, the answer to “Do you feel happy right now?” isa measure of a person’s emotion. And the answer to “Are you happy with yourlife as a whole?” measures an evaluation of a person’s well-being.
The Gallup poll on “Positive Experience” focused on howpeople felt the day before the survey. However, the larger U.N. study focusedon a person’s life as a whole.
The results were quite different.
In the UN report, Denmark and other Scandinavian ｃountrieswere in the top ten of the happiest places on earth.
1. Denmark
2. Norway
3. Switzerland
4. The Netherlands
5. Sweden
6. Canada
7. Finland
8. Austria
9. Iceland
Australia
When considering all the other factors of the UN report,Paraguay falls from 1st to 54th, Colombia falls from 2nd to 35th, Ecuador from3rd to 49th and Guatemala falls from 4th to 47th. Honduras falls from 5th to84th. However, Costa Rica remains near the top moving from 8th to 12th.
According to the United Nations report, several sub-SaharanAfrican ｃountries where poverty is high were among the least happy. But otherresults did not fall along clear economic lines.
Costa Rica was the 12th-happiest ｃountry, well aboveprosperous Japan in 43th place. Angola at 61st and Vietnam at 63rd were bothhappier places than major economies like China at 98th or India at 111th.
Source: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/where-are-the-worlds-happiest-people/2702771.html
Image: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpx4m1Flg11r0cl5wo1_500.gif
VOCABULARY:
index – n. a sign or number that shows how something is changing orperforming
indicator - n. a sign that shows the condition or existence of something.
poll - n. an activity in which several or many people are asked a question or aseries of questions in order to get information about what most people thinkabout something
survey – n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a seriesof questions in order to gather information about what most people do or thinkabout something
data – n. factual information used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, orcalculation
evaluation – n. to determine the significance, worth, or condition of usually by careful appraisal and study
prosperous – adj. marked by success or economic well-being
QUESTIONS:
1. Where is the happiest place in Korea?
2. How often do you laugh in a day?
3. What do you do when you’re happy?
4. How can you tell that you’re happy?
5. Can happiness be measured by lifestyle?
