Data from the 2016 Happy Planet Index has been released, and China has placed in the bottom half of all countries represented, ranking 72nd.
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) aims to show how efficiently residents of 140 different countries are using environmental resources to lead long, happy lives. It does this by looking at four elements: Wellbeing, life expectancy, inequality of outcomes and ecological footprint.
China's HPI score was 25.7. The highest scoring country was Costa Rica (44.7), while the lowest scoring was Chad (12.8).
With a life expectancy of 75.4 years, China performed reasonably well in this category, coming 48th out of 140.
In terms of the country's ecological footprint, China ranks 88th. This is still only half as bad as the US who were placed 134th in this category.
China gains credit for the recent three-year initiative that resulted in 95 percent of China’s population having basic health insurance coverage by 2011. And in 2010, 94 percent of the population over age 15 were literate, compared to just 20 percent in 1950.
As seen on the interactive map, there was a number of countries which could not be ranked. The HPI relies on the availability of robust data from the United Nations, Gallup World Poll and the Global Footprint Network to calculate the HPI score for each individual country. Unfortunately, that data isn’t available for every country.
Here's how the different countries in the Asia Pacific region compare in terms of overall happiness:
Vietnam: 5th (40.3)
Thailand: 9th (37.3)
Philippines: 20th (35.0)
Pakistan: 36th (31.5)
New Zealand: 38th (31.3)
India: 50th (29.2)
Japan: 58th (28.3)
China: 72nd (25.7)
South Korea: 80th (24.8)
Australia: 105th (21.2)
Hong Kong: 123rd (16.8)
Mongolia: 136th (14.3)
Worldwide, the top ten rank as follows:
Costa Rica: 1st (44.7)
Mexico: 2nd (40.7)
Colombia: 3rd (40.7)
Vanuatu: 4th (40.6)
Vietnam: 5th (40.3)
Panama: 6th (39.5)
Nicaragua: 7th (38.7)
Bangladesh: 8th (38.4)
Thailand: 9th (37.3)
Ecuador: 10th (37.0)
Overall, China coming 72nd is an improvement on last year. In 2015, the World Happiness Report, which also used data from the Happy Planet Index, ranked China 84th.
[Images via Blogspot (Yue Minjun art), Happy Planet Index]
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