Found this one,looking though a thread General Lightning have made..
I would have thought it was the Netherlands :hopeless: :hopeless:
Denmark ‘happiest place on earth’
If it is happiness you are seeking a move to Denmark could be in order, according to the first scientist to make a world map of happiness.Adrian White from the University of Leicester in the UK used the responses of 80,000 people worldwide to map out subjective wellbeing.
Denmark came top, followed closely by Switzerland and Austria. The UK ranked 41st. Zimbabwe and Burundi came bottom.
A nation’s level of happiness was most closely associated with health levels.
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Wealth and education were the next strongest determinants of national happiness.
Mr White, who is an analytic social psychologist at the university, said: “When people are asked if they are happy with their lives, people in countries with good healthcare, a higher GDP [gross domestic product] per captia, and access to education were much more likely to report being happy.”He acknowledged that these measures of happiness are not perfect, but said they were the best available and were the measures that politicians were talking of using to measure the relative performance of each country.
He said it would be possible to use these parameters to track changes in happiness, and what events may cause that, such as the effects a war, famine or national success might have on the happiness of people in a particular country.
Measuring happiness
He said: “There is increasing political interest in using measures of happiness as a national indicator in conjunction with measures of wealth.
“A recent BBC survey found that 81% of the population think the government should focus on making us happier rather than wealthier.
“It is worth remembering that the UK is doing relatively well in this area, coming 41st out of 178 nations.”
HOW THE NATIONS RANKED ON HAPPINESS
1st – Denmark
2nd – Switzerland
3rd – Austria
4th – Iceland
5th – The Bahamas
23rd – USA
41st – UK
90th – Japan
178th – BurundiHe said he was surprised to see countries in Asia scoring so low, with China 82nd, Japan 90th and India 125th, because 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,” he said. He said: “The frustrations of modern life, and the anxieties of the age, seem to be much less significant compared to the health, financial and educational needs in other parts of the world.”
Hmm…
not sure how much I trust the survey….
do you have info on when the data was gathered?
From what you tell me about Denmark it seems no worse than the UK; very similar in many respects but there seems to be more social control on people (heavier clampdowns on drugs, parties) yet still a lot of crime and violence…
And recently there was serious trouble in the country over the cartoons which offended Muslims; which has probably inflamed racial tension….
There are stereotypes of Scandinavian nations being very well run social democratic nations; maybe true to an extent but from what I hear of from yourself and the media I get the impression there are a lot of tensions over race, gender, politics etc…
are the people genuinely happy; or just thinking “well it could be worse” and saying they are happy?
I’m sorry it was suppose to be in the joke section :hopeless:
Move or delete :hopeless:
no need to apologise; it seems perfectly sensible to put the report in this section as it was presumably meant as a more serious survey.
genuinely interested to know as well whether you feel “happier” than people in the UK or any other country; or merely just the same…
Despite all the political problems etc I wouldn’t say I felt unhappy living in Britain and it is the country I would feel most comfortable staying in even if i had the money and resources to emigrate anywhere I wanted to be…
i can’t find the link, but there was a recent report that came out that said the most happy people lived on a tiny south pacific island
despite having virtually no material possessions, they worried very little about illness, mortality or the future.
another criteria was that they had vitually no impact upon their environment
i think the UK (and most other western european countries) came 150th or lower
it was on aunties website somewhere
I don’t think that Denmark is the happiest place to be…
I’m not happy because i live HERE,for me it is not the only country but the PEOPLE who are important…
They might as well be in UK,Norway,Sweden,US…..anywhere..
We have a lot of benefits in Denmark (health care, schools, elderly care? (can be discused)..
But we also pay one the highest taxes in the world..
I cant say where ill rather be..Think Denmark is okay,but not the happiest place on earth..
IMHO..
despite having virtually no material possessions, they worried very little about illness, mortality or the future.
another criteria was that they had vitually no impact upon their environment
i think the UK (and most other western european countries) came 150th or lower
it was on aunties website somewhere
Just shows the unreliabilty of surveys and statistics like this – two surveys into the same thing have produced almost completely opposite results!
there was another bit of research a few years ago that claimed Norway was the best place in the world to live
it’s not the best place if, for example, you’re a hindu, as their aren’t any hindu temples
it’s all pretty subjective stuff
I think Britain is the “least worst” place in the world – despite being fairly “internationalist” in my outlook on life.
I feel relatively safe in most parts of it despite my mixed background and the present conflicts; multiculturalism is just about holding together (although I think the global conflicts have knocked progress back about 25 years) even if its fragile and only propped up by the market.
Although Government has done bad things and is overcontrolling its not quite a dictatorship and there is still a sense of proportion about the roles of cops/soldiers/security forces – or even the amount of violence a private citizen is prepared to use (or can use) to settle a disagreement.
If I lived in the USA (and even in many other countries of the world) I would want a gun at all times; I don’t feel like this here in Britain…
I’m not surprised that the people in the Asian countries such as China aren’t that happy; in the rich ones like Malaysia and Singapore the actual wars that used to happen have been replaced by borders enforced with landmines and a concept of “kiasu” or being “afraid to lose” where every part of life is a competition with someone else (how else do you think they have been so succesful in business and technology recently?)
There is no best or happiest place in the world; and never will be until people stop increasing the worlds problems instead of finding solutions.
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