Denmark is now world's happiest nation

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7487143.stm

by ComputerGuru • 18 years ago

13 32 18 years ago

news.bbc.co.uk

hugh• 18 years ago

Boy, I sure am glad they managed to find a file photo of a guy with glasses smiling to illustrate the concept of "happiness". I might not have understood the article properly, without the benefit of the image.

The biggest problem that I can see with these kinds of surveys is that the shade of meaning of the word "happy" varies from language to language. Hell, even in English if you ask me if I'm "happy" then I won't be precisely sure that you mean.

kirubakaran2• 18 years ago

Happy? That guy looks lunatic.

tialys• 18 years ago

So then... nothing is rotten in Denmark?

astine2• 18 years ago

No, its rotten alright. The Danes have just learned to appreciate it.

petercooper2• 18 years ago

It's the most boring nation too. While it feels a little like a utopia in many ways, its imperfections make it endlessly dull and unbearable for those not from there. I enjoyed the dull predictability of it for a day or two but then couldn't wait to leave.

ivankirigin6• 18 years ago

Don't trust happiness studies. I'll say this for every single post about it.

Look where people are moving. Moving to a country, they are doing something right. Moving away, they're doing something wrong. Want to move away but it is against the law: fucked.

j2d2• 18 years ago

In response to this and raghus, I can't help but think checking where people are moving to is more of a marketing test than relevant information about happiness.

ivankirigin6• 18 years ago

What do you mean by "marketing"?

It is very patronizing to assume people make decisions that aren't in their best interest. You can certainly point to lots of irrational behavior, but generally people move to where their lives will be easier.

The biggest problem with happiness research is that there is no objective measure of happiness, and claims are relative. Poor in a village in Thailand = happy. Poor outside LA = unhappy.

asdflkj• 18 years ago

Do you know where to find that data?

ivankirigin6• 18 years ago

I sometimes see graphs in magazines like The Economist or National Geographic. Generally speaking, it takes a bit of work to get this kind of data from governments

r7000• 18 years ago

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/imm_new_cit_percap-immigra...

xiaoma• 18 years ago

Naturally enough, the "New citizenships (per capita) (most recent) by country" is lead by Canada, a country with very a very open immigration policy. Likewise, Japan, which makes it very difficult for foreigners to nationalize, is near the bottom of the list.

petercooper2• 18 years ago

I want to move to the US but it's against US law. I don't see that as "fucked," however, but just a country choosing its own immigration policies.

ivankirigin6• 18 years ago

I meant illegal to emigrate, not immigrate. But I actually do consider US immigration policy to be pretty fucked up.

daniel-cussen• 18 years ago

Indeed. For example, look at what Cubans are willing to go through to get out of Cuba: a high risk of dying on a voyage, and an large suicide rate.

Using statistics from the Cuban Health Ministry and Donate-Armada's own study of suicides in 1984, when she was working for the Health Ministry, the study argues that the island's people have been emotionally shattered since the failure of President Fidel Castro's plans for a record 10 million ton sugar harvest in 1970.

``It was the first break in the collective conscience regarding the revolution's ability to provide coherent answers to economic problems,'' said Donate-Armada, a psychologist who left Cuba in 1993.

The island's suicide rate nearly tripled after that catastrophe, from 8 per 100,000 people in 1969 to 23.2 per 100,000 in 1982, the study reported.

So bad was the crisis that in 1979 the government classified suicide statistics as state secrets, the study added, and began hiding them under other categories like ``violent deaths'' or ``other unclassified physiological illnesses.''

http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/suicidepidemic.html

According to the WHO, in 1996, Cuba's suicide rate was 24.5 per 100,000 for men and 12.0 in 100,000 for women.

For comparison, in US the figures are 17.9 per 100,000 per year for men, and 4.2 per 100,000 per year for women.

http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicider...

However, one should keep in mind Cuba is an atheist state, while in US many people are more religious, which could lead to underreporting.

raghus• 18 years ago

I read this in Reader's Digest: "No matter what people say about the United States, immigration is still the sincerest form of flattery".

run4yourlives• 18 years ago

You're 9 on the list btw.

mynameishere2• 18 years ago

Happier than this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjaFsXOS-y8

Not likely. And no, I'll never tire of posting that--not 'till the whole world has seen it.

aswanson2• 18 years ago

How in the world did you stumble upon this one? I have to know the whole process.

mynameishere2• 18 years ago

It's conveniently filed under finn bating:

http://www.gnxp.com/blog/labels/Finn%20baiting.php

...at any rate, I just watched it again. I revisted all the old pleasures (the mostly-coordinated high-socks back-up dancing, the pyscho eyebrow work of the keyboardist at 0:06, the guitarist who seems to be reconsidering the communism of his fathers, etc) and learned some new things. For instance, I'm beginning to think the whole thing has homosexual overtones...

schtog• 18 years ago

DANSKJÄÄÄÄÄVVLLLAAAAARRR!!!!

ilamont• 18 years ago

More signs that HN is becoming Reddit. Seriously, why is this on HN, and why are people voting it up?

kirubakaran2• 18 years ago

One possibility is that the Hackers want to know where to life after cashing out.

geebee• 18 years ago

Yeah, this is pretty general. But I'm often interested in hearing the hacker point of view on topics outside technology.

For instance, one issue that tends to fascinate is why silicon valley is so far ahead of everyone else. I read an article (in BusinessWeek, I think) about tech centers in Europe -Barcelona and Copenhagen were listed.

I don't feel any particular need to escape San Francisco, which I absolutely love. But I've heard Copenhagen and Barcelona are extremely cool cities, and I'd dig checking them out.

Problem is, many of the elements of the Danes's happiness might night work well with startup culture. There's a powerful welfare state, and a high degree of homogeneity in the populace. Silicon Valley thrives on risk, failure, and diversity.

Who knows, maybe the Danes are too happy to be a great startup center. Maybe startups are a great way to build wealth, but not happiness, and in the end, they end up hurting a region. Or maybe that's all crap, and the happiness of Denmark will cause just the right people to move and/or stay there, and build an incredible tech community...

Either way, it seems like a good topic for conversation on hacker news.

gamerates• 18 years ago

What happened to Iceland? Haven't they been the current rage recently as far as the "happiest" country on earth?

There is actually a really interesting article about why Iceland ranked so high that makes some nice comments about the evolving family structure:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/18/iceland

"Highest birth rate in Europe + highest divorce rate + highest percentage of women working outside the home = the best country in the world in which to live. There has to be something wrong with this equation. Put those three factors together - loads of children, broken homes, absent mothers - and what you have, surely, is a recipe for misery and social chaos. But no. Iceland, the block of sub-Arctic lava to which these statistics apply, tops the latest table of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Index rankings, meaning that as a society and as an economy - in terms of wealth, health and education - they are champions of the world."

Denmark is now world's happiest nation

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