Friday, March 20, 2020

World Happiness Survey 2019

Just published World Happiness Rankings from surveys done in 2019. The top countries are all the ones in Northern Europe that always lead: Finland, Denmark, Norway, etc. The reason the US lags down in 18th place is basically that we are angry and distrustful and think our country is messed up. As the Times points out about Finland, "91 percent of survey respondents reported being satisfied with their president and 86 percent said they trust the police."
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2 comments:

David said...

Actually, I'm impressed at how high up we are. Only two ticks behind Germany? And Mexico is 23? I was just looking at several books on Amazon that essentially argue Mexico is on the verge of becoming a failed state. Imagine how Mexicans feel about their government . . .

March 20, 2020 at 8:18 AM
David said...

I got intrigued enough about this survey that I tried to read more articles about it.

Two observations:

First, to judge from the pictures accompanying articles, one reason Finns are so happy is they're all very attractive, and nicely set off with lots of bright blues, fun-colored glasses, etc.

Second, a really variable ingredient, where the US seems to do poorly (but a lot of countries near the bottom, like Central African Republic, seem to do well at), is something called "dystopia residual" with some figures I can't make out in between dystopia and residual. I looked this up, trying to figure out what it was, and was completely baffled by a lot of statistics speak. Does anyone else get what "dystopia residual" is?

Actually, another thought about Finns: wasn't it here that I read they're completely incapable of making small talk?

March 20, 2020 at 10:25 AM

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