Pakistan ranked among top-20 happiest countries

In what appeared to be a positive news for the country, Pakistanis, in general, are happier about their lives than both Indians and Americans, says a survey released on Wednesday.

The Happy Planet Index 2012 ranks Pakistan 16th among 151 countries, ahead of both India and the United States ranked 32nd and 105th respectively.

Costa Rica is being declared  the happiest country, followed by Vietnam and Colombia.

The Happy Planet Index was calculated using life expectancy, experienced well-being and ecological footprint (per capita) of the countries with data collected from various sources including UNDP and Gallup data. The index was compiled by New Economics Foundation (NEF).

The life expectancy and experienced well-being of Pakistan was found to be mediocre, but the ecological footprint was termed “good”. The total HPI of Pakistan was calculated to be 54.1.

Israel landed just one spot above Pakistan, having “good” life expectancy and experienced well-being, but a “poor” ecological footprint.

Bangladesh was higher up on the scale at 11, with the first two factors termed mediocre and the footprint as “good”.

India was found to have mediocre life expectancy and well-being and a “good” ecological footprint. However, its total HPI amounted to 50.9.

The only reason why the US scored low was its ecological footprint which was worse than the “poor” category. The life expectancy and experienced well-being were, however, ranked “good”.

Afghanistan was ranked 109. The countries which landed at the bottom of the Happiness Index were mostly from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Denmark ranked the highest on the experienced well-being chart, followed by Canada and Norway. Togo landed on the bottom of the chart.

On the life expectancy chart, Japan topped the list, followed by Hong Kong and Switzerland, while Sierra Leone gained the last spot.

Afghanistan had the best ecological footprint among all the countries, followed by Haiti and Bangladesh. The countries with the worst ecological footprint included Qatar, Luxembourg, Kuwait, UAE, Denmark and the US.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Oct 4 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.