Namibia - CountryWatch

Social Overview Happy Planet Index
Commentary
:
European countries, such as Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria resided at the
top of the ranking with highest levels of self-reported life satisfaction. Conversely, European countries
such as Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine ranked low on the index. African countries
such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Burundi found themselves at the very
bottom of the ranking, and indeed, very few African countries could be found in the top 100. Japan
was at the mid-way point in the ranking, however, other Asian countries such as Brunei and Malaysia
were in the top tier, while Pakistan was close to the bottom with a low level of self-identified life satisfaction.
As a region, the Middle East presented a mixed bad with Saudi Arabians reporing healthy levels
of life satisfaction and Egyptians near the bottom of the ranking. As a region, Caribbean countries
were ranked highly, consistently demonstrating high levels of life satisfaction. The findings showed
that health was the most crucial determining factor in life satisfaction, followed by prosperity and education.
Source
:
White, A. (2007). A Global Projection of Subjective Well-being: A Challenge To Positive Psychology?
Psychtalk 56, 17-20. The data was extracted from a meta-analysis by Marks, Abdallah, Simms &
Thompson (2006).
Uploaded:
Based on study noted above in "Source" ; reviewed in 2012
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Happy Planet Index
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is used to measure human well-being in conjunction with environmental
impact. The HPI has been compiled since 2006 by the New Economics Foundation. The index is a
composite of several indicators including subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth, and ecological
footprint per capita.
As noted by NEFA, the HPI "reveals the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered."
Indeed, the index combines environmental impact with human well-being to measure the environmental
efficiency with which, country by country, people live long and happy lives. The countries
ranked highest by the HPI are not necessarily the ones with the happiest people overall, but the ones
that allow their citizens to live long and fulfilling lives, without negatively impacting this opportunity
for either future generations or citizens of other countries. Accordingly, a country like the United
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