The world's happiest countries are not the wealthiest ones

This is an interesting study, and it confirms what many of us who have been to other parts of the world know- that the pursuit of money and material objects is not necessarily what makes people happy, and in fact they may cause unhappiness. I bet if we focused less on business, trucks and guns and more on meaningful societies and relationships, maybe we wouldn't have all these people going crazy and shooting people.
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Gallup Inc poll reveals happiest people live in Latin America

THE world's happiest people aren't in Qatar, the richest country by most measures.

They aren't in Japan, the nation with the highest life expectancy. Canada, with its chart-topping percentage of college graduates, doesn't make the top 10.

A Gallup Inc poll released of nearly 150,000 people around the world says seven of the world's 10 countries with the most upbeat attitudes are in Latin America.

Many of the seven do poorly in traditional measures of well-being, like Guatemala, a country torn by decades of civil war followed by waves of gang-driven criminality that give it one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Guatemala sits just above Iraq on the United Nations' Human Development Index, a composite of life expectancy, education and per capita income. But it ranks seventh in positive emotions....

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which unites 34 of the world's most advanced countries, recently created a Better Life Index allowing the public to compare countries based on quality of life in addition to material well-being.

Read more: www.news.com.au...

reply to post by CB328


With about 200 countries in the world that makes less than 1000 people surveyed in each country. Is that really enough people to get an accurate feel for the average rating of happiness of each entire country?