EDITORIAL - Happier by a notch

There has been a one-notch improvement. Still, being ranked 71st among 156 economies in terms of happiness – up from 72nd out of 155 last year – indicates the challenges still faced by the Philippines in terms of promoting citizens’ well-being and quality of life. Especially when compared with the rankings of several of its Southeast Asian neighbors.

The Philippines ranked higher than Vietnam, which placed 95th; Laos, 110th; Cambodia, 120th, and Myanmar, 130th. Among the founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, however, the Philippines was ahead only of Indonesia, which was ranked 96th. Singapore, not surprisingly, ranked highest in ASEAN at 34th, followed by Malaysia; Thailand placed 46th.

In Asia, Taiwan placed highest at 26th. Bhutan, which measures its development based on a so-called gross national happiness, ranked 97th, just ahead of Somalia. Bhutan inspired the World Happiness Report, which the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network released for the first time on April 2, 2012.

Data for the annual report is drawn from international surveys including the Gallup World Poll, which measures happiness based on 14 main areas: emotions or well-being, business and economic, education and family, food and shelter, work, health, government and politics, law and order, citizen engagement, religion and ethics, environment and energy, diversity, transportation, and communications and technology.

The advanced economies with free societies have dominated the top 10 since the report was launched. Finland topped the current list, edging out Norway. Denmark placed third followed by Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia. Burundi was ranked as the unhappiest nation, followed by the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Tanzania, Yemen, Rwanda, Syria, Liberia, Haiti and Malawi.

Earlier this year, the Philippines did better in another Gallup poll on happiness, which was based on “positive affect” – or whether the respondent, on the day before the survey, had laughed or smiled, learned something, was treated with respect, experienced enjoyment and felt well-rested. In this simpler survey, the Philippines ranked third, behind only Fiji and Colombia.

The results of this simpler survey is best combined with the ranking in the World Happiness Report. When the yawning gap between the two results is substantially narrowed, it will be a happy day for Filipinos.