The interesting thing about this study is that because it covers a substantial number of years and a substantial number of countries, it allows us to understand what factors are influencing happiness levels within these countries.
The researchers had this to say:
Economic growth, democratization and rising social tolerance have all contributed to rising happiness, with democratization and rising tolerance having even more impact than economic growth. All of these changes have contributed to providing people with a wider range of choice in how to live their lives—which is a key factor in happiness.
The people of rich countries tend to be happier than those of poor countries, but even controlling for economic factors, certain types of societies are much happier than others.
“The results clearly show that the happiest societies are those that allow people the freedom to choose how to live their lives,” Inglehart said.
As an example, Inglehart points to the tolerant social norms and democratic political systems in Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Canada all of which rank among the 10 happiest countries in the world.
“The events of the past 25 years have brought a growing sense of freedom that seems to be even more important than economic development in contributing to rising happiness,” Inglehart said. “Moreover, the most effective way to maximize happiness seems to change with rising levels of economic development. In subsistence-level societies, happiness is closely linked with in-group solidarity, religiosity and national pride. At higher levels of economic security, free choice has the largest impact on happiness.”
So there you have it, countries with more democratization and rising levels of tolerance are generally happier. I don’t think there is anything really surprising about this, it seems kind of like common sense. I think the really interesting part is the comparison. The US managed to rank only 16th, which certainly isn’t bad, but I think most would expect the US to at least crack the top 10.
The leader of the study, Dr. Inglehart, talks specifically about the USA’s ranking in this little video, and anyone interested in finding out why the US didn’t do all that well should certainly take a look.
And for all those who are curious, you can see graphs similar to the one at the top of the post for other countries here (.doc format).
Further Reading:
- Happiness is rising around the world: U-M study
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