PH is 20th happiest place in the world—report

Filipinas display Philippine flags at Manila’s Rizal Park to mark National Flag Day. AFP FILE PHOTO / Joel NITO

The Philippines has ranked 20^th happiest place in the world, according to the Happy Planet Index (HPI) report of think tank New Economic Foundation (NEF) which was released recently.

The Philippines got an HPI score of 35.0.

The HPI was obtained by considering the well-being (where residents were asked on how they feel about life overall, on a scale from zero to ten); life expectancy (average number of years a person in each country is expected to live); inequality of outcomes (“the inequalities between people within a country, in terms of how long they live, and how happy they feel”); and ecological footprint of the citizens of the country.

The Philippines got a 5 in terms of well-being, an ecological footprint of 1.1 global hectares per person and 26 percent in the inequality of outcomes.

United Nations data said that the life expectancy of Filipinos is at 67.9 years.

The HPI report for 2016 included 140 countries.

According to the NEF, the HPI “measures what matters: sustainable wellbeing for all” showing “how well nations are doing at achieving long, happy, sustainable lives.”

For 2016, Costa Rica was hailed as the happiest place on Earth, ranking first in the list with an HPI score of 44.7. It has previously been considered the happiest place in the world in 2009 and 2012.

Following Costa Rica are Mexico, Colombia, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Panama, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Thailand, Ecuador, Jamaica, Norway, Albania, Uruguay, Spain, Indonesia and El Salvador.

The report also noted that while wealthy western countries are usually regarded as “standards of success,” these countries do not rank highly on the Happy Planet Index.

The HPI was created by Nic Marks and was first introduced by the NEF in 2006. JE/rga

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