IRELAND IS THE 18th happiest place on earth – according to the UN.
The third World Happiness Report was published today, ranking Ireland ahead of the UK, Germany and France, but a distance behind Switzerland, Iceland and Denmark in the top three places.
The report issues a score of between one an ten based on polling data taken between 2012 and 2014.
Ireland scored a 6.94, just behind Luxembourg and half a point behind Switzerland.
Unfortunately for Ireland, that score is down .204 on our score between 2005 and 2007. In the same period, Greece is down 1.47 points, but the people of Nicaragua and Zimbabwe are far more happy than they were.
The report highlights Ireland’s “happiness maintenance”.
With respect to the post-2007 economic crisis, the best examples of happiness maintenance in the face of large external shocks are Ireland and especially Iceland. Both suffered decimation of their banking systems as extreme as anywhere, and yet have suffered incommensurately small happiness losses.
Ireland ranked first in the number of people who say they have someone they can count on – 95% – well above the international average of 80%.
The top ten happiest countries – Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia – are all small to mid-sized western economies, while the bottom countries – Togo, Burundi, Syria, Benin, Rwanda – are all developing nations.
The report tasked leading experts across fields – economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, health, public policy and more – to measure the progress of nations.
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