Happy Planet Index

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Happy Planet Index, highest rank to lowest rank .

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an index of human well-being and environmental impact, introduced by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), in July 2006. The index is designed to challenge well-established indices of countries’ development, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Human Development Index (HDI), which are seen as not taking sustainability into account. In particular, GDP is seen as inappropriate, as the ultimate aim of most people is not to be rich, but to be happy and healthy.^[1]. Further, the notion of sustainable development requires that we have a measure of the environmental costs of pursuing those goals.^[2]

[edit] Outline

The HPI is based on general utilitarian principles — that most people want to live long and fulfilling lives, and the country which is doing the best is the one that allows its citizens to do so, whilst avoiding infringing on the opportunity of future people and people in other countries to do the same. In effect it operationalises the IUCN's (World Conservation Union) call for a metric capable of measuring 'the production of human well-being (not necessarily material goods) per unit of extraction of or imposition upon nature'.^[3] Human well-being is operationalised as Happy Life Years.^[4] Extraction of or imposition upon nature is proxied for using the ecological footprint per capita, which attempts to estimate the amount of natural resources required to sustain a given country's lifestyle. A country with a large per capita ecological footprint uses more than its fair share of resources, both by drawing resources from other countries, but also by causing permanent damage to the planet which will impact future generations.^[5]

As such, the HPI is not a measure of which are the happiest countries in the world. Countries with relatively high levels of life satisfaction, as measured in surveys, are found from the very top (Colombia in 2nd place) to the very bottom (the USA in 150th place) of the rank order. The HPI is best conceived as a measure of the environmental efficiency of supporting well-being in a given country. Such efficiency could emerge in a country with a medium environmental impact (e.g. Costa Rica) and very high well-being (e.g. Panama), but it could also emerge in a country with only mediocre well-being, but very low environmental impact (e.g. Vietnam).

Each country’s HPI value is a function of its average subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth, and ecological footprint per capita. The exact function is a little more complex, but conceptually it approximates multiplying life satisfaction and life expectancy, and dividing that by the ecological footprint. Most of the life satisfaction data is taken from the World Values Survey, but some is drawn from other surveys, and some is estimated using statistical regression techniques.

The best scoring country in 2006 is the island state of Vanuatu, followed by Colombia and Costa Rica, while Burundi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe form the bottom of the list.

[edit] Views

Green = Happiest > Blue > Purple > Orange > Red = Least Happy; Grey = Data not available The Satisfaction with Life Index shows life satisfaction scores from the HPI without adjusting for ecological footprint and life expectancy.

Much criticism of the index has been due to commentators falsely understanding it to be a measure of happiness, when it is in fact a measure of the ecological efficiency of supporting well-being (see, for example, the following blogs in Heavy Lifting^[6] and Spiked^[7]).

Aside from that, criticism has focused on the following:

• That the World Values Survey covers only a minority of the world's nations and is only done every five years. As a result, much of the data for the index must come from other sources, or is estimated using regressions.
• General suspicion of subjective measures of well-being.^[8]
• That the Ecological Footprint is a controversial concept with many criticisms.^[9]

Nevertheless, the HPI and its subcomponents have been considered in political circles. The Ecological Footprint, championed by the WWF, is widely used by both local and national governments, as well as supranational organisations such as the European Commission. The HPI itself was recently cited in the British Conservative Party as a possible substitute for GDP, ^[10] . A recent review of progress indicators produced by the European Parliament^[11], lists the following pros and cons to using the HPI as a measure of national progress:

Pros:

• Considers the actual ‘ends’ of economic activity in the form of life satisfaction and longevity
• Combines wellbeing and environmental aspects
• Simple and easily understandable scheme for calculating the index
• Comparability of results (‘EF’ and ‘life expectancy’ can be applied to different countries)
• Data online available, although some data gaps remain
• Mixture of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ criteria; takes into account people’s well-being and resource use of countries

Cons:

• ‘Happiness’ or ‘life satisfaction’ are very subjective and personal: cultural influences and complex impact of policies on happiness
• Confusion of name: index is not a measure of happiness but rather measure of environmental efficiency of supporting well-being in a given country

[edit] International Ranking

Rank	Country	HPI		Rank	Country	HPI
1	Vanuatu	68.21		90	India	42.46
2	Colombia	67.24		91	Cambodia	42.15
3	Costa Rica	66.00		92	Albania	42.13
4	Dominica	64.55		93	Jordan	42.05
5	Panama	63.54		94	New Zealand	41.92
6	Cuba	61.86		95	Japan	41.70
7	Honduras	61.75		96	Republic of the Congo	41.59
8	Guatemala	61.69		97	Egypt	41.58
9	El Salvador	61.66		98	Turkey	41.40
10	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	61.37		99	Denmark	41.40
11	Saint Lucia	61.31		100	Brunei	41.16
12	Vietnam	61.23		101	Georgia	41.15
13	Bhutan	61.08		102	South Korea	41.11
14	Samoa	60.98		103	Bosnia and Herzegovina	40.96
15	Sri Lanka	60.31		104	Senegal	40.81
16	Antigua and Barbuda	59.23		105	Azerbaijan	40.69
17	Philippines	59.17		106	Gabon	40.52
18	Nicaragua	59.09		107	Libya	40.33
19	Kyrgyzstan	59.05		108	United Kingdom	40.29
20	Solomon Islands	58.93		109	Laos	40.26
21	Tunisia	58.92		110	Benin	40.10
22	São Tomé and Príncipe	57.92		111	Canada	39.76
23	Indonesia	57.90		112	Pakistan	39.40
24	Tonga	57.90		113	Ireland	39.38
25	Tajikistan	57.66		114	Poland	39.29
26	Venezuela	57.55		115	Norway	39.18
27	Dominican Republic	57.14		116	Republic of Macedonia	39.14
28	Guyana	56.65		117	Israel	39.07
29	Saint Kitts and Nevis	56.14		118	Namibia	38.41
30	Seychelles	56.07		119	Sweden	38.17
31	China	55.99		120	Romania	37.72
32	Thailand	55.39		121	Hungary	37.64
33	Peru	55.14		122	Guinea	37.42
34	Suriname	55.03		123	Finland	37.36
35	Yemen	55.00		124	Mauritania	37.30
36	Fiji	54.47		125	Kazakhstan	36.92
37	Morocco	54.43		126	Togo	36.86
38	Mexico	54.39		127	Kenya	36.70
39	Maldives	53.52		128	Czech Republic	36.59
40	Malta	53.26		129	France	36.42
41	Bangladesh	53.20		130	Armenia	36.15
42	Comoros	52.92		131	Singapore	36.14
43	Barbados	52.73		132	Slovakia	35.81
44	Malaysia	52.69		133	Greece	35.71
45	Palestinian Authority	52.64		134	Tanzania	35.08
46	Cape Verde	52.41		135	Guinea-Bissau	35.08
47	Chile	52.20		136	Portugal	34.83
48	Timor-Leste	52.04		137	Eritrea	34.49
49	Argentina	51.96		138	Bahrain	34.35
50	Trinidad and Tobago	51.87		139	Australia	34.06
51	Belize	51.32		140	Mali	33.68
52	Paraguay	51.13		141	Mozambique	33.01
53	Jamaica	51.01		142	Cameroon	32.76
54	Nepal	49.95		143	Djibouti	32.72
55	Mauritius	49.65		144	Ethiopia	32.53
56	Mongolia	49.59		145	Bulgaria	31.59
57	Uruguay	49.31		146	Nigeria	31.14
58	Ecuador	49.29		147	Moldova	31.12
59	Uzbekistan	49.22		148	Burkina Faso	30.08
60	Grenada	48.96		149	Lithuania	29.29
61	Austria	48.77		150	United States	28.83
62	The Gambia	48.67		151	Côte d'Ivoire	28.80
63	Brazil	48.59		152	Rwanda	28.35
64	Iceland	48.35		153	Sierra Leone	28.24
65	Switzerland	48.30		154	United Arab Emirates	28.20
66	Italy	48.26		155	Angola	27.88
67	Iran	47.23		156	South Africa	27.80
68	Ghana	46.98		157	Sudan	27.74
69	Bolivia	46.17		158	Uganda	27.68
70	Netherlands	46.00		159	Kuwait	27.67
71	Madagascar	45.99		160	Latvia	27.27
72	Cyprus	45.99		161	Niger	26.80
73	Algeria	45.89		162	Malawi	26.66
74	Luxembourg	45.62		163	Zambia	25.91
75	Bahamas	44.90		164	Central African Republic	25.90
76	Papua New Guinea	44.75		165	Belarus	25.78
77	Myanmar	44.55		166	Qatar	25.50
78	Belgium	44.04		167	Botswana	25.42
79	Slovenia	44.03		168	Chad	25.37
80	Oman	43.94		169	Turkmenistan	23.96
81	Germany	43.83		170	Equatorial Guinea	23.77
82	Croatia	43.71		171	Lesotho	23.05
83	Lebanon	43.64		172	Russia	22.76
84	Taiwan	43.41		173	Estonia	22.68
85	Haiti	43.34		174	Ukraine	22.21
86	Syria	43.23		175	Democratic Republic of the Congo	20.69
87	Spain	43.04		176	Burundi	19.02
88	Hong Kong	42.88		177	Swaziland	18.38
89	Saudi Arabia	42.65		178	Zimbabwe	16.64

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Official website
• The Happy Planet Index

[edit] See also

• Gross national happiness
• Satisfaction with Life Index
• Genuine Progress Indicator