More on global happiness

Since Eric Weiner’s book, The Geography of Bliss tops all kinds of bestseller lists, the concept of happiness–and the concept of measuring it–seems to be high priority. Why we are so obsessed with happiness is certainly interesting, but even more interesting, I think, is that–contrary to the spiritual teachings out there–money apparently does buy happiness.

As reported by the Holland Herald, using data from the World Database of Happiness, the top 5 happiest countries are also some of the wealthiest countries in the world, despite their lack of sunshine:

  1. Denmark
  2. Switzerland
  3. Austria
  4. Iceland
  5. Finland

On the flip side, the bottom 5 are some of the poorest:

  • Tanzania
  • Zimbabwe
  • Moldova
  • Ukraine
  • Armenia

The interesting part is that most people experience a happiness dip between the ages of 30 and 50. Those are generally not the happiest years in a person’s life. Those are also, paradoxically, the wealthiest years or a person’s life. Hmmm.

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The happiest fliers in the world are the ones riding on the new Singapore Airlines A380:

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