What's the Happiest Country in the World?

With their dominance of the happiness rankings, the Nordic countries may have the rest of the world wondering whether the recipe for true happiness involves an obsession with cured fish and creative wood stacking. But a closer look at the methodology behind the World Happiness Report reveals an interesting anomaly. Depending on which survey questions you weigh higher on the happiness scale, the Fins and Danes may not actually be

the happiest people on the planet. Instead, that distinction might very well belong to Columbia, El Salvador and other relatively poor Latin American countries. So how could Columbia, which ranks thirty seven on this year's World Happiness Report, be the real winner? The answer is that there are two distinct

ways of gauging happiness. The World Happiness Report relies on data from the Gallop World Poll, a massive survey of a hundred and sixty countries in a hundred and forty languages, covering topics from government corruption to job security to lgbt Q rights. The most recent report covers data from the section of the Gallop World Poll that asks people about their personal well being. Includes twelve questions that are designed to elicit two very different kinds of answers about happiness.

John Clifton is a global managing partner at Gallop and remembers when the Gallop World Poll was first conceived in two thousand five. He says that the survey design team consulted with some top minds, including the Nobel Prize winners Daniel Koneman, psychologist and economist Angus Deaton, and decided to include two different types of happiness questions in the poll. One that's an overall life of uation from zero to ten and another that focuses on the emotional experiences of

daily life. Clifton says, we did it very intentionally. The way we defined well being or what makes a great life is how people live their life and how they see their life, so we need metrics for each of them. The life evaluation question, also known as Cantroll's Ladder, goes like this. Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to ten at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you, and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible

life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time. What's interesting about this question is that people's responses track closely with income level. The more money you have, the more likely you are to say that your life is an eight or nine on the ladder. Clifton thinks this is because the question is essentially asking are you satisfied

with your life? Clifton said, when we're asking people to reflect on their life and its totality, they're thinking about basic needs, whether or not they're able to meet or exceed basic needs, and one of the easiest ways to do that is with money. The World Happiness Report, which routinely ranks wealthy Nordic countries as the happiest, relies almost

exclusively on people's responses to the latter question. Beyond higher incomes, Nordic countries also rank high on other metrics that the World Happiness Report equates with well being, freedom, trust of the government, long life expectancy, social support, and generosity. But what about the second type of happiness question, the one

based on emotions and daily life experiences. In addition to the latter question, the Gallop World Pole poses a series of yesterday questions, asking people if they experienced specific positive and negative emotions during the previous day, things like smiling

and laughter, respect, enjoyment, or worry, sadness, and anger. If you equite happiness with high levels of positive daily experiences and emotions, then several surprising countries come out on top, according to Gallop data from Columbia, El Salvador and Guatemala. In fact, of the ten countries that rank highest in Gallops Positive Experience Index, seven are from Latin America. The only Nordic country to make the cut is Iceland at

number eight. So the question is which is the more accurate assessment of happiness, the latter question that favors Nordic countries or the experience questions that favor Latin American countries and which Gallop uses in its own Global Emotions Report. Clifton from Gallop says that both are useful. In his opinion, the latter question is the best indicator for policymakers who want a big picture metric of how a country is doing in general, whether it's people are struggling or thriving.

In that way, the World Happiness Report gets it right, but what that's gauging is probably closer to well being

than actual happiness. To really zero in on the complex emotional state of happiness, Clifton says he prefers those yesterday responses, but it's probably too late to change the name of the World Happiness Report to the World Well Being Report, and frankly, who would want to the former title is waked year, Clifton said, the World Happiness Report is one of the most, if not the most watched indices in

the world. You can ask anyone on the street who is the happiest country in the world, and they'll tell you it's Finland or Norway because they saw a headline in the Economist. But the World Happiness Report has not ignored the Latin American happiness paradox. Version includes a special section on happiness in Latin America and notes that there is a reasonable provision of public goods in the region,

as well as adequate health and education services. The strong social connections and close family relationships provide very high levels of emotional happiness. However, the high rates of crime, corruption, and poverty in many Latin American countries caused them to lose points on a general well being scale. Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other satisfying topics, visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com.