Gallup has released the results of a five-year study that set out to figure out which countries had the world’s happiest people. The results are in, and not surprisingly, the world’s richest countries are also the world’s happiest. Wow, who’da thunk it??! There were some exceptions however, such as Costa Rica, which ranked sixth on the list, 8 spots higher than its northern neighbor the United States, despite a relatively meager GDP. This disparity that helps shed light, according to the pollsters, on the true origins of national happiness:
Costa Rica ranks really high on social and psychological prosperity,” says Harter. “It’s probably things systemic to the society that make people over time develop better relationships, and put more value on relationships. Daily positive feelings rank really high there.” Inhabitants of some rich countries are bound to feel happier. But happiness is elusive to define, and money isn’t the only thing that influences it. Harter explains that the more abstract sense of happiness to which wealth contributes has a different effect on one’s life than daily happiness.
“Each of us is two different people. We evaluate our lives periodically; we sit back and reflect and summarize things that have gone on in our lives to date,” Harter says. “Another side is how you experience things daily. Daily experience affects your stress and your psychology. How you evaluate your life affects your decisions. It’s important to think about how you can leverage that well-being.”
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