yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

How to Measure Happiness Around the World | National Geographic


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

Can you measure happiness? It's not an easy task, but every year the Gallup World Poll tries to estimate how happy people are in a hundred and forty countries around the world. Where do they even start? Frequency of smiley face emojis? Number of hugs given per day?

We actually start by asking a few simple questions. First, researchers ask people to rate their lives on a scale of zero to ten, zero being the pits and ten being the happiest possible. If you rate your lives on a seven or higher, you're considered to be thriving. Way to go!

What stands out when you dig deeper into these poll results? One thing is clear: different cultures have different ideas of what it means to thrive. For example, Latin Americans tend to place an especially high value on positive emotions, including laughter, and consistently score highest in the daily positive experiences.

So it's no surprise that in Costa Rica, healthy and green living means happiness. Investments in health care, education, sustainability, and biodiversity have helped Costa Ricans flourish. The beautiful natural landscape also leads to a limited-stress lifestyle.

Across the pond, Danes ranked among the happiest countries in the poll. They believe they have a right to health care, education, and a financial safety net. At least half of Danes are thriving when it comes to financial well-being and community engagement.

Meanwhile, Singapore is rooted in traditional Asian values of harmony, respect, and hard work. That's why, over the last decade, it has led Southeast Asia in happiness and overall satisfaction with life.

So how can we increase happiness? Well, the data just isn't there yet. More research is needed to truly understand what makes people feel good across cultures. We know that physical health and vitality are the most important metrics for well-being.

But in the short term, a good place to start is to find happiness in everyday life. Go to a park with a friend, play with a puppy, find a hobby. Mostly, just stay healthy and discover what's important to you.

So how do you measure happiness, and what makes you happy? [Music]

More Articles

View All
Moon 101 | National Geographic
[Narrator] Over 150 moons orbit the solar system’s planets. And one of those moons calls Earth home. The moon was formed about 4.5 billion years ago when, according to one theory, the Earth slammed into another early planet. Debris from this collision beg…
Setting a Deadfall | Live Free or Die
I haven’t been eating much. I’m pretty much down to survival rations, so I’m looking for signs of rodent. I’m seeing right here kind of a cave-like formation, so I’m going to go back there, see what I can find in the deep canyons of Arizona desert. Nomad…
Simplifying square-root expressions | Mathematics I | High School Math | Khan Academy
Let’s get some practice simplifying radical expressions that involve variables. So let’s say I have ( 2 \times \sqrt{7x} \times 3 \times \sqrt{14x^2} ). Pause the video and see if you can simplify, taking any perfect squares out, multiplying, and then tak…
Genius: Aretha | Behind the Scenes with the A-Team
Hey, marker. Chat, here we go, and action. The queen of souls, I was looking the word up—genius, an exceptional quality. So, of course, Aretha Franklin has an exceptional quality. She has her beautiful voice, her amazing and brilliant piano playing, and …
Winner Winner Raccoon Dinner! | Dirty Rotten Survival
It’s Dick’s game of choice: a good old-fashioned roadkill barbecue. Smells pretty good! These guys want modern conveniences. I’m gonna give them their food in a birch bark serving tray, Allah the hillbilly hibachi! For this roadkill cook-off, the guys wil…
3-D Technology Offers Clues to How Egypt’s Pyramids Were Built | Nat Geo Live
My archaeological team actually is very unique because I’m the only ecologist, and the other members are computer scientists, software engineers, and applied mathematicians. We are like a crime scene investigation, patiently documenting with the latest te…