Happiest countries in the world...

[norwaysaint]

According to Columbia University's Earth Institute Denmark is the happiest place to be. Not too surprising, going on the "Danish boat" is considered the default party trip over here.

 

The big surprise was that Austria is the world's 8th happiest country, I mean, remove certain choice individuals dragging the average down and they would surely shoot up the list.

 

The UK came in 22nd happiest of 156 countries, so perhaps the "happy clappers" aren't the majority some make them out to be, but it's always nice to beat Germany(26th) at something. I wonder if there's a good German word for being pleased at somebody else's lack of happiness.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/09/business/earth-institute-world-happiness-rankings/index.html

 

(Yes, I know none of it really means much)

 

Do you consider yourself happy and does living in whatever country you live in make much of a difference?

[farawaysaint]

According to Columbia University's Earth Institute Denmark is the happiest place to be. Not too surprising, going on the "Danish boat" is considered the default party trip over here.

 

The big surprise was that Austria is the world's 8th happiest country, I mean, remove certain choice individuals dragging the average down and they would surely shoot up the list.

 

The UK came in 22nd happiest of 156 countries, so perhaps the "happy clappers" aren't the majority some make them out to be, but it's always nice to beat Germany(26th) at something. I wonder if there's a good German word for being pleased at somebody else's lack of happiness.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/09/business/earth-institute-world-happiness-rankings/index.html

 

(Yes, I know none of it really means much)

 

Do you consider yourself happy and does living in whatever country you live in make much of a difference?

 

"Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Benin and Togo ranked the lowest", why don't you try owning a house in these countries and see if it makes you miserable ? I like how the comments degenerated into a shouting match about the Israel-Palestine conflict though.

Edited 10 September, 2013 by farawaysaint

[farawaysaint]

In fairness to your question I've lived in 4 of the bottom 60 nations and my family was fine, mostly because we had enough money to be comfortable which most of the general population didn't. There is a fairly good correlation between the happiness listing and the Gini coefficient of the nations (a measure of income inequality) the wealthier nations with the least disparity are the happiest. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2172rank.html

[Tokyo-Saint]

Lots of Scandinavian countries on the list. Don't they in general have pretty high suicide rates? Or is this now an outdated misconception?

[Jonnyboy]

Lots of Scandinavian countries on the list. Don't they in general have pretty high suicide rates? Or is this now an outdated misconception?

 

The theory is that in countries with high levels of equality and general happiness people who deviate eg very poor, very weird, whatever, feel an emphasis on their situation as out of the norm,become more depressed and more likely to commit suicide.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Yes I consider myself happy, but not ecstatic.

[norwaysaint]

Lots of Scandinavian countries on the list. Don't they in general have pretty high suicide rates? Or is this now an outdated misconception?

I'd hard that before as we'll, but it either seems to be a myth or it's outdated.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

[Tokyo-Saint]

A lot of Asian countries on that list. I wonder how many countries don't declare their figures or record them accurately. I guess non secular countries that consider suicide to be a sin, keep it quiet.

 

Maybe the whole scandinavian thing was just linked to the Abba boom and Ikea has sorted everything out now.

[buctootim]

Happiness rates vary within countries too. People in Southampton are definitely more negative / miserable than in Brighton.

[SuperMikey]

Lots of Scandinavian countries on the list. Don't they in general have pretty high suicide rates? Or is this now an outdated misconception?

 

There's a great Doug Stanhope bit on his 2011 CD where he talks about Finland in that context.

[buctootim]

There's a great Doug Stanhope bit on his 2011 CD where he talks about Finland in that context.

 

Tsk. Finland isnt in Scandinavia, like Iceland. You being at Oxford too. World, what, coming to, stuff.

[SuperMikey]

Tsk. Finland isnt in Scandinavia, like Iceland. You being at Oxford too. World, what, coming to, stuff.

 

Nah, you're thinking of SaintAndy666. I work at One Stop.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Easy mistake to make.

[buctootim]

Nah, you're thinking of SaintAndy666. I work at One Stop.

 

In that case you've probably got the better career prospects.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Less chance of winning university challenge thou.

[SuperMikey]

Less chance of winning university challenge thou.

 

[Tokyo-Saint]

One stop are a top 8 team no more. Deep down you know it too.

[SuperMikey]

To be fair, most of our staff is made up of Uni dropouts and underachievers anyway, so I reckon we could give it a good shot.

[buctootim]

If they invested in red uniforms and broke the minimum wage structure they could be top four and in Europe. Iceland are catchable

Edited 10 September, 2013 by buctootim