Russia Trails 167 Nations as Happiness Linked to Wealth
Monday, July 31, 2006.
Moscow Times
By Katya Andrusz
Bloomberg
WARSAW -- Danes are the world's happiest people because they are healthy, rich and educated, while Russians are less happy than Rwandans, a survey of 178 countries by Britain's Leicester University found.
Switzerland is second, ahead of Austria and Iceland, according to the survey on the university's web site. The United States ranks 23 and Britain 41. Russia ranks 168.
Burundians are the least happy.
"There is increasing political interest in using measures of happiness as a national indicator in conjunction with measures of wealth,'' said Adrian White, an analytical social psychologist at Leicester University and the author of the report, in a note accompanying the survey.
The research showed that happiness was most closely correlated to health, wealth and education. As a result, the four least-happy countries are Burundi, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Moldova, which has struggled to develop its economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Some Central Asian countries fared better than Russia, with Uzbekistan ranking 80, Kazakhstan 101. Other former Soviet republics were closer to Russia: Azerbaijan (144), ahead of Georgia (169), Belarus (170) and Armenia (172).
"The frustrations of modern life and the anxieties of the age seem to be much less significant compared to the health, financial and educational needs in other parts of the world,'' White said.
The research will be published in a psychology journal in September and presented at a conference later in the year, the university said. The survey used data from the UN, the CIA and the World Health Organization.
"It's true that we're very happy," Saturday's Polish daily Dziennik quoted Mad Lauritzen from Copenhagen as saying. "Most of all, we have a sense of social security, that if we fall ill, the system will ensure that we are cared for -- that's why we can relax.''
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Moscow Times
By Katya Andrusz
Bloomberg
WARSAW -- Danes are the world's happiest people because they are healthy, rich and educated, while Russians are less happy than Rwandans, a survey of 178 countries by Britain's Leicester University found.
Switzerland is second, ahead of Austria and Iceland, according to the survey on the university's web site. The United States ranks 23 and Britain 41. Russia ranks 168.
Burundians are the least happy.
"There is increasing political interest in using measures of happiness as a national indicator in conjunction with measures of wealth,'' said Adrian White, an analytical social psychologist at Leicester University and the author of the report, in a note accompanying the survey.
The research showed that happiness was most closely correlated to health, wealth and education. As a result, the four least-happy countries are Burundi, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Moldova, which has struggled to develop its economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Some Central Asian countries fared better than Russia, with Uzbekistan ranking 80, Kazakhstan 101. Other former Soviet republics were closer to Russia: Azerbaijan (144), ahead of Georgia (169), Belarus (170) and Armenia (172).
"The frustrations of modern life and the anxieties of the age seem to be much less significant compared to the health, financial and educational needs in other parts of the world,'' White said.
The research will be published in a psychology journal in September and presented at a conference later in the year, the university said. The survey used data from the UN, the CIA and the World Health Organization.
"It's true that we're very happy," Saturday's Polish daily Dziennik quoted Mad Lauritzen from Copenhagen as saying. "Most of all, we have a sense of social security, that if we fall ill, the system will ensure that we are cared for -- that's why we can relax.''
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 8:22 PM
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