For a very long time, people have searched for ways to be happy.  It seems like a worthwhile pursuit, right?  There are a lot of different philosophies on happiness and probably many different ways to be happy, but it can’t hurt to have some statistical support as well.  Columbia University’s Earth Institute recently published a World Happiness Report, and Fast Company has a brief but informative overview of the thing here.  Fast Company also chose a nice summary quote from the report.  I haven’t read the report yet, but here’s what Fast Company thinks is a relevant summary:

“GDP is important but not all that is important. This is especially true in developed countries, where most or all of the population has living standards far above basic material needs. Except in the very poorest countries happiness varies more with the quality of human relationships than with income. And in the richest countries it is essential not to subordinate the happiness of the people to the ‘interests of the economy,’ since the marginal utility of income is low when income is so high. The economy exists to serve the people, not vice versa. Incremental gains in income in a rich country may be much less beneficial to the population than steps to ensure the vibrancy of local communities or better mental health. “

Sounds good to me!  Here’s a link to the full report.  It’s pretty long (~155 pages), but might be fun to skim through.

1. Denmark
2. Finland
3. Norway
4. Netherlands
5. Canada
6. Switzerland
7. Sweden
8. New Zealand
9. Australia
10. Ireland
11. United States