What Make a Country Happier? (according to Data Science)
What does it mean for someone to be happy? We’re often too busy with work, our social circles, and whatever other hobbies and activities we have to reflect on what it truly means to be happy.
Sometimes, it’s enough to just experience this emotion and think nothing more of it. But as human beings, we should take our self-awareness a step further and recognize why we feel happy at certain times. We should recognize that what makes us happy today might not make us happy tomorrow, and that there are a variety of other factors (some of which can be out of our control) that contribute or detract from a population’s happiness as a whole.
Happiness Around the World
In fact, we are so concerned with happiness so much that there is an official survey that ranks the state of global happiness called the World Happiness Report. Additionally, governments and organizations increasingly use happiness indicators to inform their policy-making decisions.
We see that countries like Canada, Australia, and most of Western Europe (Finland, Denmark, and Switzerland) exhibit the highest happiness scores while countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East (Syria, Rwanda, Liberia, and Madagascar) exhibit the lowest happiness scores.
Economic Factors
But why do we see this vast disparity of happiness around the world? Is it because of economic factors?
It makes sense that there is a positive relationship between a country’s wealth and how happy it is. But that doesn’t explain why the countries with the highest GDP per capita — Qatar, Luxembourg, and Singapore — don’t have the highest happiness scores. Despite some of these countries having such a high per capita GDP, it is important to consider the effects of income inequality as well.
This provides a more telling picture in that we now see countries like South Africa, Suriname, and Botswana in Sub-Saharan Africa with relatively higher Gini indices. The Gini index is a measure of statistical dispersion that represents the income inequality within a nation. In these same countries with high income inequality, we see the lowest happiness scores. However, there are outliers, such as Brazil, that exhibit high income inequality but also have higher happiness scores. That only leaves many other factors for us to consider.
Political and Organizational Factors
Besides money, there are other aspects of life that people across the world face such as persecution and terrorism. Trust in our government is something we take for granted every day. That is why it is important to consider how democracy plays a role in a country’s happiness.
Countries with higher democracy indices do tend to be happier countries. We see the same group consisting of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe having the highest democracy indices as well as the highest happiness scores. However, the lower end of the democracy range doesn’t provide as good of a picture in determining unhappiness. Perhaps we should look at more urgent issues that plague some of these nations, such as terrorist attacks.
As we can see from the map, the Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa have tallied the highest number of terrorist attacks. The data was logged primarily because there was such a large dispersion in the data. It makes sense why a country with more of these violent attacks would exhibit lower happiness ratings since many people would be living in constant fear of whether they would be persecuted.
Health Factors
When we think about the best way to release our endorphins and feel happier, we think of exercise and fitness. Outside of socio-economic factors, it’s important to consider how different populations value health and see how that compares to their happiness rating.
From this map, we can see that it’s much harder to discern a relationship than from the aforementioned factors since some countries with high obesity rates have both high and low happiness scores. But on the other end, we do see countries with extremely low obesity rates tend to be countries with low happiness scores. This could be due to the fact that rather than obesity being the problem for these countries, food insecurity is the problem. With no little to eat, it makes sense that there are low obesity rates in these countries. And if you’re worried about where your next meal is going to come from, it makes sense that your happiness is lower.
We can confirm this suspicion with a study from Tufts University depicting the risk levels of food insecurity.
Difference in Values?
After conducting these various analyses, we still have yet to come to a definitive conclusion as to what makes a country happier. So why don’t we ask the citizens of these countries themselves? In a survey conducted by the World Happiness Report, people were asked how they believe their country compares against a fictional dystopian society in the areas of the economy, family values, life expectancy and health, freedom, trust in the government, and generosity. The fictional dystopian society is assumed to have performed the worst across all of these metrics. This is what the six happiest (Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Canada) and six unhappiest countries (Burundi, Syria, Togo, Afghanistan, Benin, and Rwanda) said about these metrics.
Right from the start, we can see a huge gap in the number of squares for the happiest countries and the unhappiest countries. The number of squares represents how much better these people think their country is compared to the fictional dystopian society in these metrics. Naturally, the country with lower happiness scores would have less squares than countries with higher happiness scores.
Another worthwhile observation is that economy and family play a much larger role in a person’s happiness if they are from the 6 happiest countries than if they are from the 6 unhappiest countries. On the other hand, generosity is a much bigger factor in determining a country’s happiness if they are among the 6 unhappiest countries.
Happiness and Suicide: Any Relation?
It is one thing to feel unhappy for a little while and another thing to be unhappy all the time! Unhappiness and depression can lead to suicide, and it is important to see how this relation, if any, plays out using the World Happiness Ratings.
Surprisingly, the data is quite spread out with a slight parabolic trend suggesting that middle-of-the-range happiness scores exhibit the highest suicide rates. It is not clear why this is the case, but one reason may be that these data points exhibit other factors besides happiness such as anxiety and stress that may factor into a country’s suicide rates.
What Can I Do?
After learning about all these different factors, you may be left wondering how any of this can change how you perceive happiness. From what it seems, all these macro factors (democracy, wealth, health and terrorism) are not things that you can directly control. Still, it is important to find small steps that you can take that help you become a happier person.
A simple Google search would show us articles that tell us to meditate more, to be grateful of what we have, to maintain a journal, to do a plethora of other activities that can help us inch our way towards becoming happier and mentally healthier. That is why I have created a “wordcloud” from various articles discussing methods to becoming a happier person.
From this world cloud, we have 4 takeaways:
- Practice gratitude. Skills like having gratitude is an easy way to give yourself a confidence boost while reminding yourself to celebrate your life and be thankful for the joy you experience. Additionally, practicing gratitude towards people you care about allows you to build more meaningful connections with them.
- Meditate more often. Meditation is known for instilling calmness and focus in one’s mind. By clearing your mind, you allow for happiness to enter. Not to mention, a study from MIT has shown that meditation leads to long-term happiness.
- Exercise on a regular basis. It is known that exercise releases endorphins. Even a 15-minute jog can help reduce depression. By spending time exercising (preferably outdoors), you will improve your heart health, mental health, happiness, and well-being.
- Spend time in social settings. Don’t isolate yourself. We are social creatures, and while being happy alone is important, you will increase happiness through meaningful social connections.
