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Moving Abroad 101: The happiest place on Earth
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Recently, the second annual Happy Planet Index (HPI) named Costa Rica the happiest place on earth. Instead of using indicators like the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the HPI looks at three areas to arrive at its conclusions:
1. life expectancy
2. happiness (how satisfied with their lot the citizenry says they are)
3. ecological footprint
Being a fan of Costa Rica, is doesn’t surprise me that it scored so well, but what I find interesting is that 9 of the top 10 positions were snagged by Latin American or Caribbean countries. Here are the top three:
1. Costa Rica
2. Dominican Republic
3. Jamaica
In thinking about why that part of the world scored so well, I’m wondering if the area has been able to approach first world standards in terms of health—with enviable infant mortality rates, life spans, and health care—while remaining “third world” in terms of values: favoring family over work, pleasure over duty, and environmental sustainability over destroying the land in the name of profit.
I’ve often heard it said that you can’t have economic growth without environmental degradation and an erosion of values, leaving a populace with disposable income but also a disposable culture, rootless and anxious. What I like about the results of the latest Happy Planet Index is that it suggests that developing countries might be able to pick and chose from the smorgasbord of development, sampling the good stuff (improved health, better environmental protections), while leaving the unappealing dishes untouched.
As far as how other countries did, sub-Saharan African countries didn’t fare well, the United States was number 114, China clocked in at number 20, and India at 35.
Photo by Erin Van Rheenen of a pineapple processing plant in Saripiquí, Costa Rica.
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