Meet The Happiest People On The Planet

How, and why, do the world’s happiest people keep smiling through the long winter months?

- Jheni Osman

Once again, it’s been raining all day. It got dark hours ago. And a bitterly cold January night beckons in the city of Copenhagen. Many people would find all this pretty depressing. But not most Danes.

In 2016, Denmark was ranked as the happiest nation on the planet in the World Happiness Report. This might sound surprising given that in mid-winter the country is plunged into darkness for 16 hours a day, deprived of that supposed vital ingredient of happiness: sunshine. So what are their secrets? The annual World Happiness Report typically assesses criteria such as: per capita income; life expectancy; people’s freedom to make life decisions; generosity; social support; and corruption in government and business. For the 2017 report, researchers are looking in depth at Africa and China; happiness in the workplace; happiness over the course of life in general; and the sources and consequences of trust – the vital glue for ensuring stable social foundations. “The most surprising thing we’ve found is that building the positives is more important than identifying and curing the negatives,” says John Helliwell, professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia. He co-edits the World Happiness Report and is remaining tight-lipped about who he thinks will take the number one spot next. Helliwell and his colleagues believe that happiness provides a better indicator of human welfare than separate measures of income, poverty, education, health and good government. And they have found that people are happier living in societies where there is less happiness inequality. However, results show that happiness inequality has increased significantly in most countries, in almost all global regions, and for the population of the world as a whole. 

Does money buy happiness?