“Happiness can be measured,” says John Helliwell, co-author of the first-ever “World Happiness Report”–a document measuring this state of soul in 150 countries throughout the world.
The fruit of 30 years of research, the report reveals that happiness varies according to cultures and individuals. According to its findings, the world’s happiest people live in northern Europe, while the unhappiest live in sub-Saharan Africa.
In a lecture delivered in the Rome Auditorium on the occasion of the Festival of the Sciences, Helliwell explained how it is possible to measure happiness, saying that today it is a quantifiable entity. He then proceeded to sketch out its main features, which are numerous and whose “external” factors include income, work, adherence to a religion, values, the society in which the person lives and its government.
“Personal” factors include the person’s mental and physical health, family life, education, age and sex. “Not the least are factors such as freedom of choice and participation in the political life of the country,” added Halliwell. He concluded by saying that happiness excludes genetic factors, which are unable to explain even half the differences in happiness among the world’s countries.