The World Happiness Report for 2015 just came out. That report always seemed a little bogus to me, kind of whistling as you walk past the graveyard. It is interesting that a lot of the countries that rate very highly in happiness also rate very highly in suicide rate. There were 111 countries in the suicide list, so not one of the “happy” places was in the bottom half of the suicide rate list. Here are the top 10 happiest countries with their suicide rate ranking:
- Switzerland: 44
- Iceland: 42
- Denmark: 41
- Norway: 37
- Canada: 40
- Finland: 21
- Netherlands: 53
- Sweden: 35
- New Zealand: 39
- Australia: 49
Conversely a lot of the “unhappy” countries had very low suicide rates. For instance Syria was ranked 3rd from worst in terms of happiness and 8th from best in terms of suicide.
Betty Blonde #306 – 09/18/2009
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This reminded me of this essay i read
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/01/the-danish-dont-have-the-secret-to-happiness/384930/
I need to put that up on the main page. Another good article from the Atlantic. Who would have imagined?