| Political scientist Ronald Inglehart explains worldwide happiness levels > | |
People in most countries around the world are happier these days, according to data from the World Values Survey based at the Institute for Social Research (ISR).
Data from representative national surveys conducted from 1981-2007 shows the happiness index rose in a majority of nations studied.
“It’s a surprising finding,” says political scientist Ronald Inglehart, who directs the World Values Surveys and is the lead author of an article on the topic in the July issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. “It’s widely believed that it’s almost impossible to raise an entire country’s happiness level.”
The 2007 wave of the surveys also provides a ranking of 97 nations containing 90 percent of the world’s population. The results indicate that Denmark is the happiest nation in the world and Zimbabwe the unhappiest. The United States ranks 16th on the list, immediately after New Zealand.
During the past 26 years, the World Values Surveys have asked more than 350,000 people how happy they are, using the same two questions.
“Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?” And, “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?”
Combining responses to these two questions, Inglehart and colleagues constructed an index of subjective well-being that reflects both happiness and general life satisfaction.
In the 52 countries for which a substantial time series is available (covering 17 years on average), this index rose in 40 countries and fell in 12. The average percentage of people who said they were “very happy” increased by almost seven points.
“Most earlier research has suggested that happiness levels are stable,” Inglehart says. “Important events like winning the lottery or learning you have cancer can lead to short-term changes, but in the long run most previous research suggests that people and nations are stuck on a ‘hedonic treadmill.’ The belief has been that no matter what happens or what we do, basic happiness levels are stable and don’t really change.”
Economic growth, democratization and rising social tolerance all have contributed to rising happiness, with democratization and rising tolerance having even more impact than economic growth.
The people of rich countries tend to be happier than those of poor countries, but even controlling for economic factors, certain types of societies are much happier than others.
“The results clearly show that the happiest societies are those that allow people the freedom to choose how to live their lives,” Inglehart says.
