We’re so happy: Romanians come midway for happiness across the world

Romanians feel they are less happy than most of their European counterparts, but manage to keep their happiness level higher than in some other Eastern European countries. A recent ranking of happiness across the world for 2012 – 2014 places Romania midway among 158 countries in the world. Romania comes 86th, with a score of 5,124. In the previous ranking, Romania came 90th. Romanians currently feel happier than Serbians, the Portuguese, the Albanians, the Greeks, their Hungarian neighbors, Ukrainians, and Bulgarians, among others. The Swiss are the happiest in the world. Then come Icelanders, Danes, and Norwegians, followed by Canadians. The top 10 most happy nations in the world also include the Finnish, the Dutch, Swedes and New Zealanders. The report looks at six key variables, which account for three – quarters of the differences among countries. The six factors are GDP per capita, healthy years of life expectancy, social support (as measured by having someone to count on in times of trouble), trust (as measured by a perceived absence of corruption in government and business), perceived freedom to make life decisions, and generosity (as measured by recent donations, adjusted for differences in income). The ranking also takes into account differences in social support, incomes and healthy life expectancy as the three most important factors. Its authors found big international differences in how the global recession affected national happiness, by analyzing changes in life evaluations from 2005-2007 to 2012-2014. “Countries with sufficiently high-quality social capital appear to be able to sustain, or even improve subjective well-being in the face of natural disasters or economic shocks, as the shocks provide them an opportunity to discover, use and build upon their communal links,” according to the World Happiness report. In other cases, the economic crisis triggered drops in happiness greater than could be explained by falling incomes and higher unemployment, it further reads. The first World Happiness report was published in 2012. It is, in fact, a world subjective well-being report, as respondents evaluate their well-being and happiness. Read the full 2015 World Happiness Report here. editor@romania-insider.com The pursuit of happiness and the true meaning of a cup Romania comes 90th in world happiness rankings Study: Half of Romanian women say they’re happy, positive stance on life, relationships and social status bring happiness