Another important point to notice is that the distribution of self-reported life satisfaction in Latin America is high across the board—it is consistently to the right of other regions with roughly comparable income levels, such as Central and Eastern Europe. Below chart shows how well this factor correlates to the Happiness Index. (This chart plots self-reported life satisfaction as measured in the 10-point Cantril ladder in the vertical axis, against GDP per capita in the horizontal axis). The word “Happiness Index” doesn’t even occur in the 2018 World Happiness Report at all. The 2005 paper refers to two separate papers from 1999, that state varying figures to account for circumstantial happiness ranging from 8% to 15%. But as we can see, all countries are far below the 45-degree line. If an arrow points northeast, that means richer people tend to report higher life satisfaction than poorer people in the same country. According to the Happiness Index of 2018, the happiest countries in the world are: Finland (7,63) Norway (7,59) Denmark (7.56) 24% of your happiness is genetic (to be released soon). Roughly 35% of our happiness is circumstantial. This means that the share of people who are ‘happy’ is lower in sub-Saharan Africa than in Western Europe, independently of which score in the ladder we use as a threshold to define ‘happy’. You can use all of what you find here for your own research or writing. Social support is defined by the same survey results of the Gallup World Poll data. It also includes links to other result articles that are relevant to this study. and don’t worry i have a work cited page! The map here shows, country by country, the ‘happiness scores’ published this report. The World Happiness Report was written by a group of independent experts acting in their personal capacities. Given how much our members have enjoyed venturing beyond the physical boundaries of their communities and connecting with fellow expats and global minds around the world, we hope we will find a way to continue on this path together. Add Greece to the chart and you can see that in 2007, around 67% of the Greeks said they were satisfied with their life; but five years later, after the financial crisis struck, the corresponding figure was down to 32.4%. Here you can learn about Positive Psychology through readings, videos, research, surveys, opportunities and more. The authors have found a number of key factors that could likely explain the variance in happiness. In addition to the Gallup World Poll (discussed above), the World Value Survey also provides cross-country data on self-reported life satisfaction. It’s an indexation of happiness based on survey results, that was first used in the 2012 World Happiness Report. Happiness is one of the most important things in life. We license all charts under Creative Commons BY. Indeed, this is the most common approach. A survey of 1,155 respondents found that on average, people say that 36% of our happiness is dependent on circumstances. Available at: http://www.psy-journal.com/article/S0165-1781(00)00168-2/abstract. InterNations has not one but two reasons to celebrate this year: our global community is turning 13 and it has become the leading network for international online gatherings. However, these national averages mask large inequalities. Now that you know what the Happiness Index is, let’s dive into the results of these surveys! Everybody knows that happiness is subjective. This visualization plots the share of people answering they are Very happy or Rather happy. This Happiness Index is already quite interesting, but as we know, a single number can’t explain the underlying principles that determine happiness. Don’t be shocked by the color coding. Does disability correlate with life satisfaction? Our study dives into the questions that circle around this subject. Were people happier in the past? Happiness by Country (The World Happiness Survey Results) The World Happiness Report (WHR) surveys the happiness levels in 156 countries. Development, freedom, and rising happiness: A global perspective (1981–2007). The happiness rating of the respondents had a significant influence on the amount of circumstantial happiness they experienced. It’s not as simple as brushing aside these numbers by saying they reflect differences in ‘actual’ vs. reported happiness. The most natural way to attempt to measure subjective well-being is to ask people what they think and feel. Having children did not seem to have a strong influence on the amount of circumstantial happiness, according to the responses. I hope this series of study results and observations gives you more insight into what makes your happiness unique. Stevenson, Betsey, and Justin Wolfers. The most common way to analyze data on happiness consists in taking averages across groups of people. This has to be said, even though the large amount of participants is varied and diverse. Each country calculates GDP independently, which makes sense since a lot of classified information is required in calculating this number.