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Survey names Costa Rica happiest place in the world
| Published: | 2 Dec at 12 PM |
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Tagged: USA, Study Abroad
The Central American country of Costa Rica is the happiest place in the world, according to a recent survey by relocation website Movehub.
The study, which conducted research on 151 different countries, found that Vietnam was the second happiest place on Earth, followed by Colombia, Belize and El Salvador.
The research took measures such as life expectancy, ecological footprint and general well-being into account, using data from the New Economics Foundation’s Happy Planet Index. It worked out each country’s happiness level relating to how long and happy the average person’s life is.
However, many of the well-to-do countries that would generally be considered happy places to live scored low happiness ratings, with the index finding that a number of them had high ecological footprints. But the surprising results could also be down to the fact that human rights issues and internal inequality measures were not taken into account, which may explain why many South and Central American countries scored so highly.
The report said that Costa Rica’s high HPI score was a reflection of the quality of well-being, a high life expectancy and a moderate ecological footprint. However, when taking each component individually, the outlook was different, with Denmark, for example, being top when it came to well-being and Costa Rica in second.
In terms of life expectancy, Japan leads the way, while Qatar is in first place in the ecological footprint category.
To calculate the overall score, researchers multiplied the life expectancy numbers by those of wellbeing, before dividing that figure by the ecological footprint.
The study, which conducted research on 151 different countries, found that Vietnam was the second happiest place on Earth, followed by Colombia, Belize and El Salvador.
The research took measures such as life expectancy, ecological footprint and general well-being into account, using data from the New Economics Foundation’s Happy Planet Index. It worked out each country’s happiness level relating to how long and happy the average person’s life is.
However, many of the well-to-do countries that would generally be considered happy places to live scored low happiness ratings, with the index finding that a number of them had high ecological footprints. But the surprising results could also be down to the fact that human rights issues and internal inequality measures were not taken into account, which may explain why many South and Central American countries scored so highly.
The report said that Costa Rica’s high HPI score was a reflection of the quality of well-being, a high life expectancy and a moderate ecological footprint. However, when taking each component individually, the outlook was different, with Denmark, for example, being top when it came to well-being and Costa Rica in second.
In terms of life expectancy, Japan leads the way, while Qatar is in first place in the ecological footprint category.
To calculate the overall score, researchers multiplied the life expectancy numbers by those of wellbeing, before dividing that figure by the ecological footprint.
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