Happiness is rising around the world

People in most countries around the world are happier these days, according to new data released Monday by World Values Survey (WVS) based at University of Michigan (UM).

Data from representative national surveys conducted from 1981 to 2007 show the happiness index rose in an overwhelming majority of nations studied, according to WVS.

The 2007 wave of the surveys provides a ranking of 97 nations containing 90 percent of the world's population. The results indicate that Denmark is the happiest nation in the world and Zimbabwe the unhappiest. The United States ranks 16th on the list, immediately after New Zealand.

During the past 26 years, WVS have asked more than 350,000 people how happy they are, using the same two questions.

"Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?" And, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"

Combining responses to these two questions, researchers constructed an index of subjective well-being that reflects both happiness and general life satisfaction.

In the 52 countries for which a substantial time series is available (covering 17 years on average), this index rose in 40 countries and fell in only 12. The average percentage of people who said they were "very happy" increased by almost seven points.

"It's a surprising finding," said UM political scientist Ronald Inglehart, who leads the surveys. "It's widely believed that it's almost impossible to raise an entire country's happiness level."

美国密歇根大学“全球价值调查”（WVS）组于本周一发布的最新调查数据显示，近年来，全世界大部分国家人们的幸福感普遍增强。

“全球价值调查”称，从1981年到2007年间所做的全国抽样调查的数据显示，绝大多数受调查国家的幸福指数都有所上升。

2007年的调查对占全球总人口90%的97个国家进行了一次大排名。结果显示，丹麦是全世界最幸福的国家，津巴布韦则是最不幸福的国家。美国紧跟新西兰之后，排在第16位。

在过去26年中，“全球价值调查”主要根据相同的两个问题对超过35万人的幸福程度进行了调查。

这两个问题是：“综合考虑各种因素，你如何评价自己的幸福度？很幸福、较幸福、不是很幸福、还是一点也不幸福？”以及“综合考虑各种因素，你如何评价自己在过去一段时间内的总体生活满意度？”

研究人员结合受访者对上述两大问题的回答，构建出了一个反映幸福感和总体生活满意度的主观幸福指数。

在52 个有长期相关数据记录的国家（平均17年）中，40个国家的幸福指数都有所上升，只有12个国家下降。而觉得自己“非常幸福”的人群平均比例上升了近7个百分点。

该调查负责人、密歇根大学政治科学家罗纳德•因格哈特说：“这是一个惊人的发现。过去大家普遍认为，要提高整个国家的幸福水平几乎是不可能的。”