24/7 Wall Street:
For the second year in a row, 24/7 Wall St. examined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s report on life satisfaction in the developed world. Economic prosperity, health and a strong social support network continue to correspond highly with happiness. Once again, the United States fails to make the top 10 happiest nations in the world, while countries like Australia, Israel and all of the Scandinavian nations do.
These are the happiest countries in the world.
Before you read the article, take a guess where the US falls in the list.
It’s not even on the list and I’m not surprised.
if you want to get a different view on the issue, watch the docu Happy.
my cousin reviewed it on her blog and it sounded so interesting I went and rented it off iTunes. Fascinating stuff.
If you take a look at the source data at http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/ there’s some interesting findings, not least some fascination contradictions when it comes to the US (which came in 11th btw).
For example, Americans have the highest self-reported health score (90% equal with New Zealand) and yet life expectancy is a good deal shorter than most other developed nations. Also, the homicide rate is pretty high (5 homicides per 100,000 people) but the assualt rate (1.5%) is amongst the lowest of all the countries included.
As expected, the US has by far the greatest income and financial wealth, combine this with out relatively low housing expenditure and you can summize that the US has much greater disposable income in the World. That’s probably due to the relatively high ‘long work hours’ score, although they still devote almost as much leisure and personal care time as other countries (where are these hours coming from, lack of sleep?)
With all this extra money you would think the Americans could do a better job with education, job security/unemployment and the environment – but we knew that already.
Oh, and for a country that prides itself on being ‘the freest in the World’, it’s Civic engagement scores could use a little improvement too.