The Philippine Online Chronicles

People would tell you that money couldn’t buy happiness, but according to a recent Gallup World Poll, it seems like there’s growing reason to believe otherwise. In a survey that combined the responses of thousands of people in 155 countries from 2005 to 2009, countries that are known to be relatively well-off economically ended up in the higher tiers while a lot of the poorer nations ended up at the bottom.

The methodology was quite simple. People from all over the world were asked about their net satisfaction about their daily lives. They were asked to do this by rating their daily experience from 1-10. This score was further broken down into the nuances of their daily lives. High scores were arbitrarily labelled as responses for “thriving” individuals while those on the other extreme end were labelled as “suffering.”

The first five sports on the list were taken by European nations, with four of the five located in Scandinavia. Denmark ranked first with a total percentage of “thriving” individuals at 82 percent. This was far and away the best score for this category. Seventeen percent of Danish respondents said that they were “struggling” but this was still far lower than what the other nations in the survey reported. Only one percent was seen to be as “suffering” and Denmark recorded one of the highest daily experience scores worldwide with 7.9 out of a possible 10.

Finland was a far second with 75 percent of its population recorded to be “thriving” and 23 percent “struggling.” Two percent were “suffering” and the daily experience score was 7.8. Finland was the only other country with a “thriving” percentage higher than 70.

Norway was third with a “thriving” score of 69 percent. The rest were “struggling” – meaning no one was under the “suffering” bracket. The daily experience score was at par with Denmark’s at 7.9.

The Netherlands and Sweden (the last of the Scandinavian countries) had “thriving” scores of 68 percent. Both countries were tied for fourth despite the minuscule differences in their percent struggling (32 to 30, respectively), percent “suffering” (1 and 2, respectively) and daily experience scores (7.7 and 7.9, respectively).

The first non-European countries in the list come in at sixth. The tiny nations of New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere New Zealand and the Central American nation of Costa Rica have identical “thriving” percentages of 63 percent. They also have similar “struggling” shares at 35 percent and “suffering” percentages at 2 percent. Costa Rica however has a higher daily experience score of 8.1 as opposed to 7.6 for New Zealand.

Closing out the top eleven is a mixed bag of countries from the Middle East, Australasia, and the Americas. Despite the serious security concerns, it’s very surprising to see the nation of Israel tied for eighth with a rating of 62 percent for the “thriving" score. The general apprehensions of the Israelites were probably reflected by the low 6.4 rating for the daily experience charts. Another small European nation, Switzerland, ended up in the top eleven with a very solid score of 7.6 for the daily experience score. Australia had 7.5 while Canada had a score of 7.6.

The trend

Of the eleven top ranked countries when it comes to Gallup’s measure for overall happiness, all are well within the top half of the gross national product (per capita) ratings. In fact, save for Costa Rica which still averages around USD10,000 a year for each citizen, the rest of the ten countries in the higher echelon are well within the top forty countries in the world in terms of per capita wealth. All the countries in the list have relatively small populations. Canada and Australia may have huge populations relative to the other countries on the top – most have less than ten million – but they have huge land areas. Canada and Australia are among the largest countries in the world.

The countries on the top of the rankings also have fairly high Human Development Index (HDI) scores. In the recent results, Norway (1^st), Australia (2^nd), Canada (4^th), Netherlands (6^th), Sweden (7^th), Switzerland (9^th), Finland (12^th) and Denmark (16^th) were very prominent. The Human Development Index is a comparative score of various statistics that are believed to reflect the quality of life of a nation’s citizens. This includes life expectancy, wages, cost of living and other parameters.

The rest

More populous but nonetheless rich countries made it in the list shortly after the big gap from the 11^th spot. Brazil – one of the most populous as well as largest countries in the world – ended up at twelfth. The country had a score of 58 for the “thriving” percentage with a score of 40 for the “struggling” column. Brazil has had a long problem with increased urban migration and this has risen to an unusually high urban poor population. Despite this, Brazil is still regarded as an emerging economy along with Russia, India and China in the so-called BRIC group of countries. Tied with Brazil is Panama.

The United States comes in at 57 percent “thriving,” good enough for a tie at 14^th with Austria. The US has had to deal with great problems in the past decade due to their failing economy and involvement in two long-drawn out wars.

The United Kingdom comes in at 17^th. The country has also had its share of problems including the collapse of its housing sector. This has also caused massive upheavals in the country’s political system.

Other countries who were able to cross the 50 percent mark for the “thriving" score included Belgium, Turkmenistan (a country with a relatively modest USD5,900 GNP per capita), United Arab Emirates (yet another country facing financial crises), Mexico, and Venezuela. It’s very interesting to see Venezuela ranked this high up considering that they have been ruled by Hugo Chavez in the past few years who is regarded by many as an authoritarian dictator. This just proves that the measures of happiness are really arbitrary and could be quite different from country to country.

Southeast Asia

According to the study, the happiest nation in Southeast Asia is Thailand which was ranked 79^th – smack in the middle of the standings. The country has been facing turmoil in the past five years following a series of government shake ups and violent protests. Only twenty percent of the people were said to be “thriving” while three-fourths were “struggling.” A further five percent claimed to be “suffering.” Despite this, however, the daily experience score for the country was a solid 8.0 – a score that is higher than most of the top countries on this list.

Singapore is ranked 81^st. The country is quite rich with a per capita income of over USD50 thousand per citizen a year. This makes them the fourth richest in terms of this parameter, just behind Qatar, Luxembourg, and Norway. Despite this though, only 19 percent of the people in Singapore consider themselves as “thriving.” There are 75 percent in the “struggling” group with a further six percent in the “suffering” column. The daily experience score was 6.9.

Indonesia was also close behind at 85^th. The daily experience score was 8.2 – the third highest score in the world just behind Panama (12^th) and Paraguay (48^th). Indonesia only had 18 percent of its citizens who considered themselves “thriving.” The “suffering” Indonesians were at 10 percent of respondents.

Despite our self-professed cheerfulness and general happy-go-lucky attitude, the Philippines was very low on the list. The Philippines ended up at 94^th place, tied with Malaysia. Fifteen percent claimed to be “thriving” while 68 percent were said to be “struggling.” An alarming figure of 18 percent – almost a fifth – claimed to be “suffering.” The daily experience score was quite modest at 7.2.

As one would expect, countries that are poor and are experiencing bad political and peace-and-order situations are at the bottom of the list. None of the countries in the lowest 19 ranks have a “thriving” percentage of greater than six percent.

Of the 19 countries at the bottom, 16 are located in Africa. The only country from the Americas to have ranked this low was Haiti. The study was conducted before the tragic 2010 earthquake that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, but the nation has been faced with multiple natural disasters and political unrest in the past decade. The only European state in the lower ranks is Bulgaria. Cambodia is the sole Asian country at the bottom of the standings.

The sixteen African nations at the bottom include Uganda, Senegal, Tanzania, Liberia, Mali, Chad, Haiti, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo (Kinshasa), Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Niger, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Comoros, and Togo.

Burundi topped the unenviable list of countries in terms of total percentage of “suffering” people at 40 percent. Only two percent of the population considered themselves to be “thriving.”

Liberia had 90 percent of its respondents considered “struggling.” The remaining five percent were evenly split among those with “thriving” lifestyles and those “suffering.”

Togo had the least amount of thriving individuals at just one percent. Togo also had 67 percent of its respondents consider themselves “struggling” while 31 percent fell under “suffering.” The country also had the lowest daily experience score at 5.0.

War zones

Iraq was ranked 110^th with a percent thriving rating of 11 percent. Eighteen percent considered themselves to be “suffering.” The daily experience score was the second lowest in the study, at 5.2 out of ten.

Afghanistan was 115^th. The “thriving” rate was at ten percent while the “struggling” ratio was at 69 percent. The “suffering” percentage was at 21 percent. The daily experience score was 6.2.

The Palestinian Territories – despite not being a recognized state by most countries - was ranked 96^th in the world. The “thriving” percentage was at 14. The “struggling” ratio was at 70 and 15 considered themselves as “suffering.” The daily experience score of Palestinians were fourth from the bottom at 5.8 – just behind Togo, Iraq and Albania.