Do You Live in a Happy Country? The Answer Might Surprise You

Leave a Comment / January 12, 2012
The Annual Global Barometer of Happiness has just been released

A fascinating survey has just been released – the ‘Global Barometer of Happiness’.

See if you can rank these countries in order of happiness.

Here they are in alphabetical order :

  • Afghanistan (not much that needs to be said about that country)
  • Canada (a seemingly smug and self-assured nation that avoids most international controversy or ire)
  • Egypt (newly liberated from its past ‘oppression’)
  • Fiji (a nation beset by civil war, racial tensions and coups)
  • Ghana (these days home to more internet scammers than Nigeria, it seems)
  • Japan (earthquakes and nuclear reactor issues in the last year)
  • Romania (now independent, and since 2007, a member of the EU)
  • United States (how to describe my own country?)

This survey is conducted annually, and has been running since 1977.  In 2011 it surveyed 58 different countries, from extremely poor to comparatively very rich, and created a happiness score for each country.  The average score was 40.

You can see much more detail about this survey here.

I’m putting a couple of extra lines here to keep the answers away from you.  Scroll on down to get to the answers.

 

I’m putting a couple of extra lines here to keep the answers away from you.  Scroll on down to get to the answers.

 

I’m putting a couple of extra lines here to keep the answers away from you.  Scroll on down to get to the answers.

 

I’m putting a couple of extra lines here to keep the answers away from you.  Scroll on down to get to the answers.

 

I’m putting a couple of extra lines here to keep the answers away from you.  Scroll on down to get to the answers.

 

And now for the winners and losers.  Bet you didn’t get many of these correct.  Maybe there’s something significant in these answers?  Or maybe not!

 

  • Fiji – happiest in the world with a happiness index of 85
  • Ghana – fifth happiest in the world with a happiness index of 72
  • Canada – 23rd equal happiest with a happiness index of 47
  • Japan 23rd equal happiest with a happiness index of 47
  • Afghanistan  37th happiest with a happiness index of 35
  • United States  39th happiest with a happiness index of 33
  • Egypt  second most unhappy country with a happiness index of 0
  • Romania  unhappiest with a happiness index of -10

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