HAPPINESS -- Nigeria #1, USA #16

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

There is something repulsive and insidious about quantifying happiness. It's precisely the kind of reduction from quality to numerical value that Gaddis rails against in "Agape Agape." Nevertheless, for what it's worth, here's the story on the study:

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Report: Nigeria No. 1 in happiness, U.S. ranks 16th

Thursday, October 2, 2003 Posted: 3:52 PM EDT (1952 GMT)


LONDON, England (Reuters) -- It's difficult to quantify and differs between cultures, professions and religions but people in Latin America, Western Europe and North America are happier than their counterparts in Eastern Europe and Russia.

An analysis of levels of happiness in more than 65 countries by the World Values Survey shows Nigeria has the highest percentage of happy people followed by Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Puerto Rico, while Russia, Armenia and Romania have the fewest.

"New Zealand ranked 15 for overall satisfaction, the U.S. 16th, Australia 20th and Britain 24th -- though Australia beats the other three for day-to-day happiness," New Scientist magazine, which published the results, said on Wednesday.

But the weekly magazine said that factors that make people happy vary. Personal success, self-expression, pride, and a high sense of self-esteem are important in the United States.

"In Japan, on the other hand, it comes from fulfilling the expectations of your family, meeting your social responsibilities, self-discipline, cooperation and friendliness," according to the magazine.

The survey is a worldwide investigation of sociocultural and political change conducted about every four years by an international network of social scientists. It includes questions about how happy people are and how satisfied they are with their lives.

It showed that average happiness has remained virtually the same in industrialized countries since World War Two, although incomes have risen.

The exception is Denmark, where people have become more satisfied with life over the last three decades.

Researchers believe the unchanging trend is linked to consumerism.

"Survey after survey has shown that the desire for material goods, which has increased hand in hand with average income, is a happiness suppressant," the magazine added.

[Uli]

I am just glad it's not Belgium.

[Pete C]

Only goes to show you that money, or even human rights, is not the key to happiness. When I travel I'm attracted to places where the people seem to be having a ball. I don't know how Spain scores, but those folks know how to live, while people in Portugal seem pretty gloomy. In Russia and Poland people's faces shout gloom. How did Finland do?

[Monte Smith]

First of all, congratulations to the people of Nigeria. You happy bastards! Pete is absolutely right about the frequently-supposed sources of happiness not always counting for everything. But I've found throughout my travels that happy people and miserable people are pretty randomly and fairly scattered around the globe. Looking at it nationally is foolish.

Originally posted by Squaredancecalling Steve
There is something repulsive and insidious about quantifying happiness.

How true. There is an advertisement on the radio out here in Seattle for some internet-based dating service. Not stopping at the promise "We bring people together," they add a preposterous claim: "Our couples are x% happier than regular couples." Yeah, I'm sure you can track that sort of thing and tie it to your proprietary technology.

[moneyp]

So this means we're seeded to meet Nigeria in the third round of the Happiness Tournament, right?

[Monte Smith]

Originally posted by mone peterson
So this means we're seeded to meet Nigeria in the third round of the Happiness Tournament, right?

Yeah! Bring it on! We'll kick your ass!

Let's play:

[bostontricky]

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball, Monte...

Originally posted by Pete C
Only goes to show you that money, or even human rights, is not the key to happiness.

Nothing like having "Fifteen Million United States Dollars only (US$15,000,000.00)" locked up in some inaccessible account somewhere to put some spring in your step...

[mke]

Any such study which does not put Belgium at the top is too seriously flawed to merit discussion.