THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE ON EARTH

A British think-tank has published a study called the Happy Planet Index, in which they rank the countries of the world according to the well-being of their citizens. According to this study the south Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu -- population 200,000 -- is home to the happiest people on Earth. “People are generally happy here because they are very satisfied with very little,” said Marke Lowen of Vanuatu Online. “This is not a consumer-driven society...It’s a place where you don’t worry too much...The only things we fear are cyclones or earthquakes.” Also in the top five were the nations of Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica and Panama. The Happy Planet Index tracked life satisfaction, life expectancy, and the environmental footprint of a nation’s citizens to create its rankings, which explains why the world’s most energy-hungry nations fared poorly. Canada (111) and the U.S. (150) didn’t even crack the top 100, most of the European nations fell between 66th (Italy) and 129th place (France) while Japan came in at 95 and Russia a miserable 172nd. The five unhappiest countries on Earth are Ukraine, Republic of Congo, Burundi, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, which came in dead last. (AFP)