Denmark no longer ’world’s happiest’

Danes aren’t as happy as they have been, reports Seven59.dk and other media.

Denmark has dropped from first place to third on the 2015 World Happiness Report, released Thursday.

Switzerland topped the list of the happiest nations, and all of the top eight countries were in the global north. Switzerland was followed by Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Variables include life expectancy, social support

The report is based on Gallup World Poll data collected from people in more than 150 countries between 2012 and 2014.

Researchers then analyse the “life evaluation” data to rank countries, ostensibly providing a comparative overview of people’s subjective well-being in each.

The variables used to formulate final scores include:

• Healthy years of life expectancy.
• Availability of social support.
• Generosity (i.e. how many people have donated to charity in the last month).
• Perceptions of corruption in government and business.
• Individuals’ perceptions of their personal freedoms.

See the full report here.

I…am… happy

On indices of self-reported well-being, Denmark – home of the melancholy Kierkegaard and Lars von Trier – is also consistently measured as one of ‘the happiest countries in the world’

But according to a previous featured comment on the University Post, Denmark is neither better nor worse than any other country.

universitypost@adm.ku.dk

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