The Country With The Happiest People Is...
The happiest countries in the world all have something in common, according to Gallup’s new ranking. (Photo: Getty Images)
When it comes to happiness, Latin America must be onto something.
Gallup surveyed people in 143 countries to rank the happiest nations, and found that the entire top 10 are in Latin America. Paraguay scored the top spot, and Colombia, Ecuador, and Guatemala tied for second. Meanwhile, the least happy nations were all found to be in the Middle East and North Africa. (See below for the top 10 and bottom 10 countries in the ranking.)
For the survey, Gallup developed a “happiness score” for each country based on responses from survey participants, who were asked if they had five positive experiences the day before the survey. Gallup tallied the “yes” responses to five questions from roughly 1,000 people in each country surveyed. The questions included:
Did you feel well-rested yesterday?
Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?
Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?
Did you learn or do something interesting yesterday?
Did you experience the following feelings during a lot of the day yesterday? How about enjoyment?
From these responses, Gallup was able to create a Positive Experience Index score for each country — which, strangely enough, is pretty steady every year. The worldwide score usually falls around 70.
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In 2014, that was no different. The global mean was 71 — which is good news, meaning most people reported feeling pretty happy. Most men and women said they feel a lot of enjoyment, smile or laugh a lot, feel well-rested, and are treated with respect. People are staying mentally stimulated, too: According to the poll, more than 50 percent of people worldwide reported doing something interesting the day prior to the interview.
It’s worth noting that a failure to report a ton of positive vibes doesn’t automatically spell doom and gloom. For instance, people in the former Soviet Union are pretty even-keeled. While they don’t report a lot of positive emotions, they don’t report a lot of negative emotions either, according to past Gallup research.
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Check out the countries that scored highest and lowest in the Gallup happiness ranking:
Top 10
Paraguay : 89
Columbia: 84
Ecuador: 84
Guatemala: 84
Honduras: 82
Panama: 82
Venezuela: 82
Costa Rica: 81
El Salvador: 81
Nicaragua: 81
Bottom 10
Sudan: 47
Tunisia: 52
Bangladesh: 54
Serbia: 54
Turkey: 54
Bosnia and Herzegovina: 55
Georgia: 55
Lithuania: 55
Nepal: 55
Afghanistan: 55
