Gross National Happiness: My new favorite measure of the success of a nation!

I am so impressed, I found out today that in 1972 the country Bhutan came out with a Happiness Index as a measure of their country's prosperity. Since the country started measuring its Gross National Happiness (GNH), other countries like the UK, Canada and France have more recently also included measuring their citizen's happiness level as part of how those countries measure their success. According to Bhutan's "Short Guide to Gross National Happiness Index" the country measured its citizens' happiness levels by measuring a bunch of different factors. Some of these were: demographic factors (gender, age, etc.), psychological well being, general health, culture, education, how people use their time, social support (family life), resilience to things like climate change, among others . (There were apparently 33 factors that were included in measuring GNH in total.) I especially liked the tables that were included in the document like one titled: "Headcount of Happy People by District." ( In case you wanted to know, according to that chart, a majority of the people living in the west of Bhutan are very happy.) I wish more countries measured their success by how happy their people were. Just think, if people in general measured their lives by how happy they were. I can just see people when they're having a good day jumping up and down saying: HOORAY! I'm so happy and therefore I'm successful!

 To read more about Bhutan's GNH Index click here.