Ruut
Veenhoven
Published in: Karma Ura & Karma, Galay (Eds.)
'Gross national happiness and development', Proceedings of the first
international seminar on ‘Operationalization of Gross National Happiness’,
Center of Bhutan Studies, Thimphu, Bhutan, 2004, ISBN 99936-14-19-X, pp.
287-318<
ABSTRACT
Happiness is defined as the degree to which a person
enjoys his or her life-as-a-whole. Accordingly ‘Gross National Happiness’ is
defined as the degree to which citizens in a country enjoy the life they live.
Individual happiness can be measured by self-report on a single standard
question. Hence Gross National Happiness can be measured by the average
response to such questions in general populations surveys.
Survey data on average self-report
of happiness can be combined with estimates of life-expectancy based on civil
registration. The resulting index denotes how long and happy people live in a
country and can be expressed in a number of Happy-Life-Years (HLY).
Comparison across present day
nations shows huge differences on this indicator, HLY varying between 63
(Switzerland) and 21 (Moldavia). About 80% of these differences can be
explained by variation in societal characteristics, such as economic
development, political democracy and mutual trust. HLY varies also over time.
During the last decade it rose in western nations but plunged in the former
Soviet nations.
It is argued that
HLY is the best available indicator of Gross National Happiness.