World's Happiest Country

I came across this interesting article that notes that Vanuatu is the world's happiest country. Where in the world is Vanuatu? Apparently 3/4 of the way to Australia from Hawaii - somewhere in the South Pacific (near Fiji). How was this study determined? Apparently, someone developed a tool that determined happiness based on people's well-being and environmental impact.

"The index combines life satisfaction, life expectancy and environmental footprint -- the amount of land required to sustain the population and absorb its energy consumption."

Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominica, & Panama completed the list of the top five. (I have only been to Costa Rica and I can verify that it is indeed a happy place to visit!) Where did my country of Canada end up in the ranking? 111, while our neighbor to the south - the USA came in at 150. Zimbabwe came in at last place 178 of the countries ranked. For full rankings & further explanations check these two sites: one world & independent online. Why are we so low on the happiness scale?

According to one of the Vanuatu locals - the reason they are so happy is that they are very satisfied with very little: "This is not a consumer-driven society. Life here is about community and family and goodwill to other people. It's a place where you don't worry too much."

Hmm - anything we can learn from these happier places? Contentment is not found in things - it is found in relationships & care for others; strangely sounds like something I read in the New Testament. The more focus we place on our needs, the less time we focus on others - and ironically the result is that we are never satisfied. It seems that we were designed to care for the needs of others - only then can we find contentment.