One of the factors I considered before moving to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 2002 was how friendly the people were. I had been to PV many times and always loved the people I met. Then I read an article in Travel and Leisure magazine that year that ranked Puerto Vallarta as the #1 friendliest city in the world, confirming my experiences…and that happiness ratings abroad may be an important consideration for you.
Happy people are good people to be around. It just makes life that much better. My experience got me thinking about happiness ratings abroad and in other cities in the world. After nosing around online for an afternoon I found several interesting studies that I will share with you.
The well-known pollsters at Gallup released the first study a few months ago. They asked 1,000 people in each of 148 countries if they were well-rested, had been treated with respect, smiled or laughed a lot, learned something interesting and felt feelings of enjoyment the previous day. All pretty good measures of happiness.
Eight out of 10 of the world’s happiest people, according to Gallup, live in Latin America, which is no surprise to those of us who have visited or lived south of our border. Panama tied with Paraguay for top honors, followed closely by El Salvador, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Guatemala, Philippines, Ecuador and Costa Rica.
On the other hand, no smiley face for Singapore, which had the lowest positive emotions of any country surveyed. Armenia, Iraq, Georgia, Yemen, Serbia, Belarus, Lithuania, Madagascar and Afghanistan also shared the happiness basement with Singapore.
Most of the high happiness ratings abroad are not wealthy countries, reaffirming the old adage that money does not buy happiness.
Next time, I’ll share with you the latest findings from the aptly named World Database of Happiness.