VOA慢速英语2015 世界上最幸福的人生活在哪里

AS IT IS 2015-04-02 Where are the World’s Happiest People? 世界上最幸福的人生活在哪里

On March 20, the United Nations celebrated¹ its third annual International Day of Happiness.

So, Happy belated International Day of Happiness!

The UN created the holiday to include happiness as an indicator² as to how we are succeeding as a global community.

In 2012, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, said that for too long the world has used Gross National Product (GNP) to measure the well-being³ of a country’s population. In other words, the amount of money people made. Money certainly does help a country’s and a person’s well-being. But it is not the only factor.  

So, you might be asking, where are the happiest people on the planet?

Gallup poll finds Latin America is a very happy place

If you live in Latin America, chances are you are happy, according to Gallup’s “Positive Experience Index.” This Gallup index found that day-to-day people in Latin America are some of the happiest people on the planet.

In fact, for the first time in Gallup's 10-year history of global tracking of happiness, all of the top 10 countries with the highest “Positive Experience Index” scores are in Latin America.

Here they are in descending⁴ order of happiness:

Paraguay

Colombia

Ecuador

Guatemala

Honduras

Panama

Venezuela

Costa Rica

El Salvador

Nicaragua

Gallup representatives asked adults in 143 countries the following questions: “Did you feel well-rested yesterday?” “Were you treated with respect all day yesterday? “Did you smile or laugh a lot?” “Did you learn or do something interesting?”

They compiled the “yes” responses from these questions into what they call a “Positive Experience Index” score for each country.

The index score for the world in 2014 is 71. This number has remained steady through the years. More than 70% of people worldwide said they had fun, smiled or laughed a lot, felt well rested and respected.

Gallup gathered the information from face-to-face and phone interviews with about 1,000 adults from each country. They spoke⁵ with people in both rural and urban areas.

t is perhaps not surprising that places that experienced conflict such as South Sudan and Ukraine and places that suffered or are suffering from Ebola scored quite low on the “Positive Experience Index.”

However, even in places where the fewest people reported having positive emotions such as Afghanistan, the majority of people still said they smiled or laughed a lot the day before the Gallup interview.

Gallup found that the area of the world with the lowest positive emotions is in the Middle East and North Africa region. However, Gallup did not gather data from several countries in the Middle East in time to be included in the 2014 results. For example, data from Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are not included. The UAE usually scores well on happiness surveys.

Last year, Syria had the lowest positive emotion points ever reported. Syria is not included in this year’s study as data was not available at the time the Gallup report was written.   

Gallup’s happiness poll also found that having money is not necessarily the key to happiness. Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but ties for second when it comes to positive emotions.

A larger picture of happiness

The United Nations did a much larger survey in 2013 called the World Happiness Report. Chances are Latin America countries will not be happy with this report.

The authors of this UN report considered factors such as healthy life expectancy⁶ at birth, freedom to make life choices, a country’s social support systems and experience with corruption⁷. They also used some Gallup poll results on happiness.

The authors of the larger UN study say it is important when you measure for happiness that you separate happiness as an emotion and happiness as an evaluation⁸ of a person’s well-being.

For example, the answer to “Do you feel happy right now?” is a measure of a person’s emotion. And the answer to “Are you happy with your life as a whole?” measures an evaluation of a person’s well-being.

The Gallup poll on “Positive Experience” focused on how people felt the day before the survey. However, the larger U.N. study focused on a person’s life as a whole.

The results were quite different.

In the UN report, Denmark and other Scandinavian countries were in the top ten of the happiest places on earth.

Denmark

Norway

Switzerland

The Netherlands

Sweden

Canada

Finland

Austria

Iceland

Australia

When considering all the other factors of the UN report, Paraguay falls from 1st to 54th, Colombia falls from 2nd to 35th, Ecuador from 3rd to 49th and Guatemala falls from 4th to 47th. Honduras falls from 5th to 84th. However, Costa Rica remains⁹ near the top moving from 8th to 12th.

According to the United Nations report, several sub-Saharan African countries where poverty is high were among the least happy. But other results did not fall along clear economic lines.

Costa Rica was the 12th-happiest country, well above prosperous Japan in 43th place. Angola at 61st and Vietnam at 63rd were both happier places than major economies like China at 98th or India at 111th.

Studies can only tell us so much. In the comments section please share your happiness level and the happiness level of your country.

Words in This Story

index – n. a sign or number that shows how something is changing or performing

indicator - n. a sign that shows the condition or existence of something.

poll - n. an activity in which several or many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to get information about what most people think about something

survey – n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something

data – n. factual information used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation

evaluation – n. to determine the significance, worth, or condition of usually by careful appraisal¹⁰ and study

prosperous – adj. marked by success or economic well-being

1 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

2 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

3 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

4 descending   

n. 下行 adj. 下降的

参考例句：

• The results are expressed in descending numerical order . 结果按数字降序列出。
• The climbers stopped to orient themselves before descending the mountain. 登山者先停下来确定所在的位置，然后再下山。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

7 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

8 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

9 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

10 appraisal   

n.对…作出的评价；评价，鉴定，评估

参考例句：

• What's your appraisal of the situation?你对局势是如何评估的？
• We need to make a proper appraisal of his work.对于他的工作我们需要做出适当的评价。