Saturday, December 31, 2011

Canadians and Japanese equally happy

  Leger Marketing surveyed about 53,000 people in a total of 58 countries. Leger asked participants whether they were unhappy or happy in 2011. The happiest country was Fiji. People there no doubt enjoy the weather and beaches and laid back life style.
   Canada ranked 23rd. In spite of the poor economy and disasters in Japan they tied with Canada. An even bigger surprise was that Afghans were happier than Americans.
   No doubt some countries that are relatively well off have unhappy people because expectations are high. This may explain the Afghan U.S. anomaly. Relatively, the situation in Afghanistan is probably not as bad as it has been. In the U.S. unemployment, and the general economic situation has been worse than earlier and looks bad for the future.
    Canada's net happiness score was 47 per cent much above Afghanistan at 35 and the U.S. at 33 per cent. Fiji  the happiest country had a net happiness score of 85. The score is the result of subtracting the percentage of happy people from unhappy people. For more see this article. Among Canadians those in Alberta are the unhappiest! This result perhaps also shows that happiness is based upon expectations rather than ones actual conditions. Alberta is relatively well off and booming compared to many other provinces.

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