[Buddha-l] Happiest countries in the world

[Katherine Masis]

Alberto Todeschini wrote:
 
“I hope I'm not going to offend anyone but I find American society
(where I've been living for some years now) as a whole to be
particularly fake. That's, of course, a generalization against which I
know plenty of individual exceptions. Hence -and for other reasons- I
too am skeptical that people can and would report their level of
happiness reliably and I have doubts about America ranking as one of
the happiest countries on earth.”
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I’ll add to what you just said.  I’m bilingual, bicultural [American (Californian) mom and Costa Rican dad] and bi-national.  But in the 9 years that I lived in the U.S., I grew tired of that “I’m doing great” mantra chanted out loud by so many folks 24/7.  I hope I’m not sounding judgmental—the habit just never clicked with me.
 
Interesting statistics on the happiest countries in the world.  Denmark and Switzerland vie for first place.  Costa Rica, Malta and the Netherlands vie for 5th place.  The USA and several other countries vie for 6th place.  So those “places” aren’t held by just one country.
 
See the full list of countries, complete with world map, according to a study performed at University of Leicester.
 
White, A. (2007). A Global Projection of Subjective Well-being: A Challenge to Positive Psychology?  Psychtalk 56, 17-20.
 
http://www.le.ac.uk/users/aw57/world/sample.html
 
Katherine Masis
San José, Costa Rica