Happiness is increasingly being considered as the proper measure of social progress and the goal of public policy, says the UN. The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan measures prosperity by gauging its citizens’ happiness levels, not the GDP. But how exactly does one measure happiness? Not just of a person, but of each nation? If you ask the pollsters, you will be told how a cross section of people in each country are asked to rate themselves on various parameters, which are then collated and added up to arrive at a measure of happiness.
Apparently, the higher you score, the happier you are. To account for mood swings, some pollsters even conduct periodic ‘happiness check-ups’ and arrive at an average. There’s a physiological way too: Happiness leads to increased activity in the brain’s left pre-frontal lobe and decreased amounts of cortisol (a stress hormone) in your bloodstream. But the number of volunteers willing to undergo these intrusive tests to get a fair sampling is mind-boggling. (Unless you are in North Korea or Saudi Arabia, where these tests— or perhaps even happiness—could be made mandatory by royal decree).
The annual World Happiness Report, compiled by the UN since 2012, has just been released for 2017. Its analysis is based chiefly on individual life evaluations, roughly 1,000 per year in each of more than 150 countries, as measured by answers to the Cantril ladder question: “Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to 10 at the top.
The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom represents the worst ... On which step would you say you feel you stand?” It also measures six other factors: Income, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on in times of trouble, generosity, freedom and trust, and GDP. Expectedly, not a single Asian nation ranks among the top 10. But the question is, can something as subjective as happiness really be broken down into a number or ranking?