How is the success of a country measured? Economic status, military power and citizen welfare are the commonly considered criteria, yet countries that would otherwise score high on these standards score surprisingly low on another, less used criterion—happiness. In the World Happiness Report for 2017, America sat at 14th place between Austria and Ireland, while under conventional measures it would appear pretty much near the top of the list. Happiness levels may seem a frivolous way of marking how well a country is doing, but the report, which has been giving an annual account of global contentedness since 2012, is a serious document produced by the United Nations. It measures this abstract indicator using a combination of factors, such as health, life expectancy and GDP. It also includes more subjective factors, like whether citizens feel they have strong support networks and the freedom to make choices.
The report is interesting because it shows how the wealth of a country is sometimes at odds with its level of happiness, and is often not an indicator of how the people are feeling, as measured by the UN's criteria. For example, China, where per-capita income has increased sharply over the last quarter of a century, still only ranked 79th on the list in 2017, up four places since the previous year. India, which has become a major economic power during the same time period as China, was much lower down the list at 122nd place in 2017. However, what is clear is that all of the countries at the top of the list, like Norway and Denmark, have a relatively high per-capita GDP compared to those in the lower reaches. Money may not be a clear indicator of happiness, but it is certainly a factor.