Happy Planet Index - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Happy Planet Index is an index

Index (economics)

In economics and finance, an index is a statistical measure of changes in a representative group of individual data points. These data may be derived from any number of sources, including company performance, prices, productivity, and employment. Economic indices track economic health from...

of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation

New Economics Foundation

The New Economics Foundation is a British think-tank.NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit with the aim of working for a "new model of wealth creation, based on equality, diversity and economic stability"....

(NEF) in July 2006. The index is designed to challenge well-established indices of countries’ development, such as Gross Domestic Product

Gross domestic product

Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....

(GDP) and the Human Development Index

Human Development Index

The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...

(HDI), which are seen as not taking sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

into account. In particular, GDP is seen as inappropriate, as the usual ultimate aim of most people is not to be rich, but to be happy

Happiness

Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....

and healthy. Furthermore, it is believed that the notion of sustainable development requires a measure of the environmental costs of pursuing those goals.

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'. Human well-being is operationalised as Happy Life Years. Extraction of or imposition upon nature is proxied for using the ecological footprint

Ecological footprint

The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...

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, and also by causing permanent damage to the planet which will impact future generations.

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

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

in 6th place) to the very bottom (the USA in 114th 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

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

) and very high well-being, but it could also emerge in a country with only mediocre well-being, but very low environmental impact (e.g. Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

).

Each country’s HPI value is a function of its average subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy

Life expectancy

Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...

at birth, and ecological footprint

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

World Values Survey

The World Values Survey is a global research project that explores people’s values and beliefs, how they change over time and what social and political impact they have. It is carried out by a worldwide network of social scientists who, since 1981, have conducted representative national surveys in...

and World Database of Happiness, but some is drawn from other surveys, and some is estimated using statistical regression

Regression analysis

In statistics, regression analysis includes many techniques for modeling and analyzing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables...

techniques.

178 countries were surveyed in 2006, compared to 143 in 2009. The best scoring country in 2009 was Costa Rica

Costa Rica

, followed by the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

, Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

, Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

and Vietnam

Vietnam

, with Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

, Botswana

Botswana

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...

and Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

featuring at the bottom of the list.

International rankings

2006 Happy Planet Index

2009 Happy Planet Index

EWLINE

Rank	Country	HPI
1	Vanuatu	68.21
2	Colombia	67.24
3	Costa Rica	66.00
4	Dominica	64.55
5	Panama	63.54
6	Cuba	61.86
7	Honduras	61.75
8	Guatemala	61.69
9	El Salvador	61.66
10	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	61.37
11	Saint Lucia	61.31
12	Vietnam	61.23
13	Bhutan	61.08
14	Samoa	60.98
15	Sri Lanka	60.31
16	Antigua and Barbuda	59.23
17	Philippines	59.17
18	Nicaragua	59.09
19	Kyrgyzstan	59.05
20	Solomon Islands	58.93
21	Tunisia	58.92
22	São Tomé and Príncipe	57.92
23	Indonesia	57.90
24	Tonga	57.90
25	Tajikistan	57.66
26	Venezuela	57.55
27	Dominican Republic	57.14
28	Guyana	56.65
29	Saint Kitts and Nevis	56.14
30	Seychelles	56.07
31	Mainland China	55.99
32	Thailand	55.39
33	Peru	55.14
34	Suriname	55.03
35	Yemen	55.00
36	Fiji	54.47
37	Morocco	54.43
38	Mexico	54.39
39	Maldives	53.52
40	Malta	53.26
41	Bangladesh	53.20
42	Comoros	52.92
43	Barbados	52.73
44	Malaysia	52.69
45	Palestinian National Authority	52.64
46	Cape Verde	52.41
47	Chile	52.20
48	East Timor	52.04
49	Argentina	51.96
50	Trinidad and Tobago	51.87
51	Belize	51.32
52	Paraguay	51.13
53	Jamaica	51.01
54	Nepal	49.95
55	Mauritius	49.65
56	Mongolia	49.59
57	Uruguay	49.31
58	Ecuador	49.29
59	Uzbekistan	49.22
60	Grenada	48.96
61	Austria	48.77
62	The Gambia	48.67
63	Brazil	48.59
64	Iceland	48.35
65	Switzerland	48.30
66	Italy	48.26
67	Iran	47.23
68	Ghana	46.98
69	Bolivia	46.17
70	Netherlands	46.00
71	Madagascar	45.99
72	Cyprus	45.99
73	Algeria	45.89
74	Luxembourg	45.62
75	The Bahamas	44.90
76	Papua New Guinea	44.75
77	Myanmar	44.55
78	Belgium	44.04
79	Slovenia	44.03
80	Oman	43.94
81	Germany	43.83
82	Independent State of Croatia	43.71
83	Lebanon	43.64
84	Republic of China	43.41
85	Haiti	43.34
86	Syria	43.23
87	Spain	43.04
88	Hong Kong	42.88
89	Saudi Arabia	42.65
90	India	42.46
91	Cambodia	42.15
92	Albania	42.13
93	Jordan	42.05
94	New Zealand	41.92
95	Japan	41.70
96	Republic of the Congo	41.59
97	Egypt	41.58
98	Turkey	41.40
99	Denmark	41.40
100	Brunei	41.16
101	Georgia (country)	41.15
102	South Korea	41.11
103	Bosnia and Herzegovina	40.96
104	Senegal	40.81
105	Azerbaijan	40.69
106	Gabon	40.52
107	Libya	40.33
108	United Kingdom	40.29
109	Laos	40.26
110	Benin	40.10
111	Canada	39.76
112	Pakistan	39.40
113	Republic of Ireland	39.38
114	Poland	39.29
115	Norway	39.18
116	Republic of Macedonia	39.14
117	Israel	39.07
118	Namibia	38.41
119	Sweden	38.17
120	Kingdom of Romania	37.72
121	Hungary	37.64
122	Guinea	37.42
123	Finland	37.36
124	Mauritania	37.30
125	Kazakhstan	36.92
126	Togo	36.86
127	Kenya	36.70
128	Czech Republic	36.5
129	Early Modern France	36.42
130	Armenia	36.15
131	Singapore	36.14
132	Slovakia	35.81
133	Greece	35.71
134	Tanzania	35.08
135	Guinea-Bissau	35.08
136	Portugal	34.83
137	Eritrea	34.49
138	Bahrain	34.35
139	Australia	34.06
140	Mali	33.68
141	Mozambique	33.01
142	Cameroon	32.76
143	Djibouti	32.72
144	Ethiopia	32.53
145	Kingdom of Bulgaria	31.59
146	Nigeria	31.14
147	Moldova	31.12
148	Burkina Faso	30.08
149	Lithuania	29.29
150	United States	28.83
151	Côte d'Ivoire	28.80
152	Rwanda	28.35
153	Sierra Leone	28.24
154	United Arab Emirates	28.20
155	Angola	27.88
156	South Africa	27.80
157	Sudan	27.74
158	Uganda	27.68
159	Kuwait	27.67
160	Latvia	27.27
161	Niger	26.80
162	Malawi	26.66
163	Zambia	25.91
164	Central African Republic	25.90
165	Belarus	25.78
166	Qatar	25.50
167	Botswana	25.42
168	Chad	25.37
169	Turkmenistan	23.96
170	Equatorial Guinea	23.77
171	Lesotho	23.05
172	Russia	22.76
173	Estonia	22.68
174	Ukraine	22.21
175	Democratic Republic of the Congo	20.69
176	Burundi	19.02
177	Swaziland	18.38
178	Zimbabwe	16.64

EWLINE

Rank	Country	HPI
1	Costa Rica	76.1
2	Dominican Republic	71.8
3	Jamaica	70.1
4	Guatemala	68.4
5	Vietnam	66.5
6	Colombia	66.1
7	Cuba	65.7
8	El Salvador	61.5
9	Brazil	61.0
10	Honduras	61.0
11	Nicaragua	60.5
12	Egypt	60.3
13	Saudi Arabia	59.7
14	Philippines	59.0
15	Argentina	59.0
16	Indonesia	58.9
17	Bhutan	58.5
18	Panama	57.4
19	Laos	57.3
20	Mainland China	57.1
21	Morocco	56.8
22	Sri Lanka	56.5
23	Mexico	55.6
24	Pakistan	55.6
25	Ecuador	55.5
26	Jordan	54.6
27	Belize	54.5
28	Peru	54.4
29	Tunisia	54.3
30	Trinidad and Tobago	54.2
31	Bangladesh	54.1
32	Moldova	54.1
33	Malaysia	54.0
34	Tajikistan	53.5
35	India	53.0
36	Venezuela	52.5
37	Nepal	51.9
38	Syria	51.3
39	Myanmar	51.2
40	Algeria	51.2
41	Thailand	50.9
42	Haiti	50.8
43	Netherlands	50.6
44	Malta	50.4
45	Uzbekistan	50.1
46	Chile	49.7
47	Bolivia	49.3
48	Armenia	48.3
49	Singapore	48.2
50	Yemen	48.1
51	Germany	48.1
52	Switzerland	48.1
53	Sweden	48.0
54	Albania	47.9
55	Paraguay	47.8
56	Palestinian National Authority	47.7
57	Austria	47.7
58	Serbia	47.6
59	Finland	47.2
60	Independent State of Croatia	47.2
61	Kyrgyzstan	47.1
62	Cyprus	46.2
63	Guyana	45.6
64	Belgium	45.4
65	Bosnia and Herzegovina	45.0
66	Slovenia	44.5
67	Israel	44.5
68	South Korea	44.4
69	Italy	44.0
70	Kingdom of Romania	43.9
71	Early Modern France	43.9
72	Georgia (country)	43.6
73	Slovakia	43.5
74	United Kingdom	43.3
75	Japan	43.3
76	Spain	43.2
77	Poland	42.8
78	Republic of Ireland	42.6
79	Iraq	42.6
80	Cambodia	42.3
81	Iran	42.1
82	Kingdom of Bulgaria	42.0
83	Turkey	41.7
84	Hong Kong	41.6
85	Azerbaijan	41.2
86	Lithuania	40.9
87	Djibouti	40.4
88	Norway	40.4
89	Canada	39.4
90	Hungary	38.9
91	Kazakhstan	38.5
92	Czech Republic	38.3
93	Mauritania	38.2
94	Iceland	38.1
95	Ukraine	38.1
96	Senegal	38.0
97	Greece	37.6
98	Portugal	37.5
99	Uruguay	37.2
100	Ghana	37.1
101	Latvia	36.7
102	Australia	36.6
103	New Zealand	36.2
104	Belarus	35.7
105	Denmark	35.5
106	Mongolia	35.0
107	Malawi	34.5
108	Russia	34.5
109	Chad	34.3
110	Lebanon	33.6
111	Republic of Macedonia	32.7
112	Republic of the Congo	32.4
113	Madagascar	31.5
114	United States	30.7
115	Nigeria	30.3
116	Guinea	30.3
117	Uganda	30.2
118	South Africa	29.7
119	Rwanda	29.6
120	Democratic Republic of the Congo	29.0
121	Sudan	28.5
122	Luxembourg	28.5
123	United Arab Emirates	28.2
124	Ethiopia	28.1
125	Kenya	27.8
126	Cameroon	27.2
127	Zambia	27.2
128	Kuwait	27.0
129	Niger	26.9
130	Angola	26.8
131	Estonia	26.4
132	Mali	25.8
133	Mozambique	24.6
134	Benin	24.6
135	Togo	23.3
136	Sierra Leone	23.1
137	Central African Republic	22.9
138	Burkina Faso	22.4
139	Burundi	21.8
140	Namibia	21.1
141	Botswana	20.9
142	Tanzania	17.8
143	Zimbabwe	16.6

Views

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 and Spiked

Spiked (magazine)

Spiked is a British Internet magazine focusing on politics, culture and society from a humanist and libertarian viewpoint.- Editors and contributors :...

).

Aside from that, criticism has focused on the following:

That the HPI completely ignores issues like political freedom, human rights and labor rights.
That the World Values Survey
World Values Survey
The World Values Survey is a global research project that explores people’s values and beliefs, how they change over time and what social and political impact they have. It is carried out by a worldwide network of social scientists who, since 1981, have conducted representative national surveys in...

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.
That the Ecological Footprint
Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...

is a controversial concept with many criticisms.

Nevertheless, the HPI and its subcomponents have been considered in political circles. The Ecological Footprint, championed by the WWF

World Wide Fund for Nature

The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...

, is widely used by both local and national governments, as well as supranational organisations such as the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

. The HPI itself was recently cited in the British Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

as a possible substitute for GDP,. A recent review of progress indicators produced by the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

, 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

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Outline

International rankings

Views

See also

External links