The Happiest People on Earth…

…are the Chinese!

Ipsos just published an eye-opening report entitled, “Global Happiness 2023” (dated March 2023). The report states that China has the highest level of happiness in the world at 91 percent. The United States is well behind at 76 percent. My home country of Canada is at 74 percent. Surprisingly, Japan and South Korea are at 60 and 57 percent, respectively; their people are pretty miserable.

G7 + Spain

United States: 76 percent.
France: 74 percent.
Canada: 74 percent.
Great Britain: 70 percent.
Spain: 69 percent.
Italy: 68 percent.
Germany: 67 percent.
Japan: 60 percent.

BRICS + Saudi Arabia

Brazil: 83 percent.
Russia: n/a.
India: 84 percent.
China: 91 percent.
South Africa: 77 percent.
Saudi Arabia: 86 percent.

A Few Observations

The BRICS nations seem to be happier than the developed economies. (I trust the Russians are pretty happy, given that they’ve bested the collective West’s sanctions.)

Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Japan fall below the global average of 73 percent.

As the one representative of the Scandinavian countries, Sweden has a poor showing at 74 percent. The Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) tend to be widely regarded as very happy nations.