INEQUALITY-ADJUSTED HAPPINESS IN 94 NATIONS 1995-2005
How well nations combine level and differences in happiness
Top/bottom
Top
> 70 |
Middle
range
± 50 |
Bottom
< 30 |
Denmark |
76 |
Greece |
55 |
Armenia |
29 |
| Switzerland |
75 |
Portugal |
53 |
Ukraine |
28 |
| Austria |
72 |
Iran |
51 |
Moldova |
27 |
| Iceland |
72 |
Bolivia |
49 |
Zimbabwe |
23 |
| Australia |
71 |
Bangladesh |
48 |
Tanzania |
20 |
Full list, alphabetic
| nation |
level
of life satisfaction
mean 0-10 1 |
inequality in life-satisfaction
standard deviation 2
|
inequality-adjusted
lifesatisfaction
index 0-100 3 |
| Albania |
4,4 |
2,5 |
37 |
| Algeria |
5,2 |
3,2 |
41 |
| Angola |
4,4 |
2,5 |
36 |
| Argentina |
6,8 |
2,6 |
59 |
| Armenia |
3,7 |
2,6 |
29 |
| Australia |
7,7 |
1,7 |
71 |
| Austria |
8,0 |
1,9 |
72 |
| Azerbaijan |
4,9 |
2,6 |
41 |
| Bangladesh |
5,7 |
2,5 |
48 |
| Belarus |
4,0 |
2,5 |
32 |
| Belgium |
7,3 |
2,0 |
66 |
| Bolivia |
5,8 |
2,6 |
49 |
| Bosnia |
5,1 |
2,6 |
43 |
| Brazil |
6,8 |
3,0 |
58 |
| Bulgaria |
4,2 |
2,7 |
34 |
| Canada |
7,6 |
2,1 |
68 |
| Chile |
6,7 |
2,4 |
59 |
| China (4) |
6,3 |
2,7 |
54 |
| Colombia (4) |
8,1 |
2,2 |
73 |
| Croatia |
5,9 |
2,5 |
51 |
| Cyprus |
6,9 |
2,3 |
61 |
| Czech Republic |
6,4 |
2,2 |
57 |
| Denmark |
8,2 |
1,8 |
76 |
| Dominican Rep |
6,8 |
2,7 |
58 |
| Egypt |
4,8 |
3,7 |
36 |
| El Salvador |
7,2 |
2,7 |
63 |
| Estonia |
5,1 |
2,4 |
43 |
| Finland |
7,7 |
1,7 |
71 |
| France |
6,5 |
2,2 |
58 |
| Georgia |
4,1 |
2,9 |
32 |
| Germany |
7,2 |
2,0 |
65 |
| Ghana |
4,8 |
2,4 |
41 |
| Great Britain |
7,1 |
2,1 |
64 |
| Greece |
6,4 |
2,4 |
55 |
| Guatemala |
7,6 |
2,5 |
67 |
| Honduras |
7,1 |
2,6 |
62 |
| Hungary |
5,6 |
2,4 |
48 |
| Iceland |
7,8 |
1,8 |
72 |
| India |
6,2 |
2,9 |
51 |
| Indonesia |
6,6 |
2,3 |
58 |
| Iran |
6,0 |
2,7 |
51 |
| Iraq |
4,7 |
2,7 |
38 |
| Ireland |
7,6 |
2,0 |
69 |
| Israel |
6,7 |
2,5 |
58 |
| Italy |
6,9 |
2,1 |
62 |
| Ivory Coast |
5,8 |
2,5 |
49 |
| Japan |
6,2 |
2,1 |
55 |
| Jordan |
5,2 |
2,8 |
42 |
| Kenya |
5,2 |
2,5 |
44 |
| Kuwait |
7,0 |
- |
- |
| Kyrgezigstan |
6,1 |
2,9 |
51 |
| Latvia |
4,7 |
2,5 |
39 |
| Lebanon |
5,3 |
2,6 |
45 |
| Lithuania |
4,6 |
2,8 |
37 |
| Luxembourg |
7,6 |
2,1 |
69 |
| Macedonia |
4,9 |
2,7 |
40 |
| Mali |
4,9 |
2,3 |
42 |
| Malta |
7,5 |
2,0 |
68 |
| Mexico |
7,6 |
2,5 |
67 |
| Moldova |
3,5 |
2,6 |
27 |
| Montenegro |
5,5 |
2,5 |
47 |
| Morocco |
5,6 |
2,8 |
47 |
| Netherlands |
7,5 |
1,5 |
70 |
| New Zealand |
7,2 |
2,2 |
64 |
| Nigeria (4) |
6,4 |
2,7 |
54 |
| Norway |
7,6 |
1,9 |
69 |
| Pakistan |
4,3 |
1,6 |
39 |
| Peru |
6,0 |
2,7 |
51 |
| Philippines |
6,4 |
2,7 |
55 |
| Poland |
5,9 |
2,7 |
50 |
| Portugal |
6,0 |
2,2 |
53 |
| Romania |
5,0 |
2,8 |
41 |
| Russia |
4,4 |
2,6 |
36 |
| Saudi Arabia |
7,0 |
2,5 |
61 |
| Senegal |
5,7 |
2,5 |
48 |
| Serbia |
5,1 |
2,7 |
42 |
| Singapore |
6,8 |
1,9 |
62 |
| Slovakia |
5,5 |
2,5 |
46 |
| Slovenia |
6,7 |
2,8 |
59 |
| South Africa |
5,5 |
3,1 |
44 |
| South Korea |
5,9 |
2,0 |
53 |
| Spain |
6,9 |
2,0 |
62 |
| Sweden |
7,6 |
1,8 |
70 |
| Switzerland |
8,1 |
1,7 |
75 |
| Taiwan |
6,2 |
2,2 |
55 |
| Tanzania |
3,2 |
3,6 |
20 |
| Turkey |
5,2 |
2,9 |
42 |
| Uganda |
5,1 |
2,7 |
42 |
| Ukraine |
3,6 |
2,7 |
28 |
| Uruguay |
6,7 |
2,6 |
59 |
| USA |
7,4 |
2,1 |
67 |
| Uzbekistan |
6,2 |
2,6 |
48 |
| Venezuela |
6,8 |
3,1 |
57 |
| Viet nam |
6,1 |
2,3 |
54 |
| Zimbabwe |
3,3 |
3,0 |
23 |
Technical details
- Happiness assessed by means of surveys in
general public samples.
- This list is
based on responses to a single question on life-satisfaction.
-
Data on average happiness in nations are taken
from RankReport 2006-1d.
- Data on standard deviation of happiness in nations are taken from RankReport 2006-3c
- In this ranking the focus is not only
on the level of happiness in the country, but also on inequality in
happiness among citizens.
- Inequality-Adjusted-Happiness
is measured as a linear combination of the mean and the standard deviation of the
distribution of happiness in a nation.
- This index is expressed in the following formula: IAH = 9.60(m -
0.414s) + 4, where m is the mean response to a question on happiness in a nation and s is
the sample standard deviation of the responses, happiness being measured with a 0 to 10
scale ranging from most unhappy (0) to most happy (10).
- On this index a score of 100 means that everybody is completely
happy; e.g. that all respondents in the sample rated their happiness 10 on a 0 to10 scale.
A score of 0 would represent the worst possible society with respect to both level and
equality of happiness. Intermediate scores may either mean that the the average is high in
spite of sizable inequality or that happiness is low on average but equally so in the
country.
- This measure was first presented at the conference of the
International Society for Quality Of Life Studies (ISQOLS) in Frankfurt, July 2003. It is
presented in more detail in Veenhoven, R. & Kalmijn, W. Inequality-Adjusted Happiness
(IAH) in Nations. Egalitarianism and Utilitarianism Married in a New Index of Societal
Performance.
in: Journal of Happiness Studies, 2005, vol. 6, pp. 421-455
- The above values are computed with a program in MsExcel named IAH-calculator
- Some of the data used here are not
beyond doubt
-
Life satisfaction scores may be inflated in some countries, due to
undersampling of rural population (China, and Nigeria).
-
The score on life satisfaction in Columbia is dubious since it does
not correspond with the responses on a question about happiness in the same sample and
does not fit either with two later surveys that used another question on lifesatisfaction
(and are for that reason not included in this list).
Our policy is to report
doubtful data unless we are fairly sure that they are wrong. This is to avoid that we
ignore data that do not fit our expectations.
- This list is included in SPSS datafile States of Nations as variable IAH_00s.
Cite as:
Veenhoven, R., Inequality-Adjusted Happiness
in 94 nations 1995-2005, World
Database of Happiness, Rank Report 2006-4b, Internet: worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl
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