Tuesday 2 October 2012

World's happiest countries

World's happiest countries, The University of Michigan's World Values Surveys (WVS) has compiled data on the happiest countries in the world for over twenty years. Their results are considered the most authoritative by happiness researchers.

WVS measures the happiness of individuals by two different means. The first is to simply ask them how "happy" they are. The second is to ask them how "happy" they are, and also how "satisfied" they are.  The results are then combined to arrive at a measure of their "subjective well-being," a term generally considered synonymous with happiness.

Because of these two different ways of measuring happiness, some confusion arises in determining which countries in the world are happiest. There is support for the the validity of both measures. For example, former president of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Martin Seligman, uses the "happiness only" measure in his book Authentic Happiness.  However, Dr. Ron Inglehart, director of World Values Surveys, considers the "subjective well-being" measure a more accurate indicator of personal happiness.

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