The Guardian (UK) wrote about the New Economics Foundation (NEF), a London-based think tank, which has used data on countries’ ecological footprints, average life expectancy, and “life satisfaction,” to construct an overall “happy planet index (HPI).” Costa Rica tops this years’ list, beating most developed countries. “Costa Ricans top the list because they report the highest life satisfaction in the world, they live slightly longer than Americans, yet have an ecological footprint that is less than a quarter the size.”
The top 10 countries are found mostly in Latin America, while African countries are near the bottom of the table. Among Western countries, the Netherlands tops the list. “People there live on average over a year longer than people in the US, and have similar levels of life satisfaction – yet their per capita ecological footprint is less than half the size. The Netherlands is therefore over twice as environmentally efficient at achieving good lives as the US, Nef says.” The United States is in the lower-middle range at 114th place.
The Guardian (UK) writes that HPI measures “how much of the Earth’s resources nations use and how long and happy a life their citizens enjoy as a result.” NEF argues that HPI is a better approach than Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for measuring global wealth. “The unwavering pursuit of economic growth – embodied in the overwhelming focus on GDP – has left over a billion people in poverty, and has not notably improved the well-being of those who were already rich, nor even provided us with economic stability.” Even with economic growth, the HPI shows that the “US, China and India were all greener and happier 20 years ago than they are today.”
Increased life satisfaction and life expectancy has come at the cost of higher ecological footprints, according to NEF. “Life satisfaction and life expectancy combined have increased 15% over the 45-year period for those living in the rich nations, but it has come at the cost of a 72% rise in their ecological footprint.”
Read the article and the full report. Use the HPI site to explore the data.
Also, check out another set of indicators, Gross National Happiness, developed by the government of Bhutan.
Image credit: NEF / HPI
