Earlier this week, President Laura Chinchilla was at the United Nations General Assembly promoting our country’s image of happiness. Our President also supports the initiative presented by the Kingdom of Bhutan to give preference to developing Gross National Happiness (GNP) over Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Our President’s remarks on GNP got a lot of attention from the international community, but while she was busy at the UN General Assembly, researchers at Columbia University were busy looking into our perceived happiness and making sure it was accurately ranked among other countries in the world.

According to the new World Happiness Report by the Earth Institute, people in more than ten different countries are happier than we are. Here is the list of the top 15 happiest nations:

1. Denmark
2. Finland
3. Norway
4. Netherlands
5. Canada
6. Switzerland
7. Sweden
8. New Zealand
9. Australia
10. Ireland
11. United States
12. Costa Rica
13. Austria
14. Israel
15. Belgium

The list above is based on the Cantril ladder. Researchers John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs explained the Cantril ladder findings and criteria as follows:

“In the Gallup World Poll respondents are asked (using fresh annual samples of 1,000 respondents aged 15 or over in each of more than 150 countries) to evaluate the quality of their lives on an 11-point ladder scale running from 0 to 10, with the bottom rung of the ladder (0) being the worst possible life for them, and 10 being the best possible. We begin with this ladder measure, which we sometimes refer to as the Cantril ladder, because it currently covers the widest span of countries. “

The study also points out the paradox of studying well-being and happiness in an age of high advancements in technology:

“We live in an age of stark contradictions. The world enjoys technologies of unimaginable sophistication; yet has at least one billion people without enough to eat each day. The world economy is propelled to soaring new heights of productivity through ongoing technological and organizational advance; yet is relentlessly destroying the natural environment in the process. Countries achieve great progress in economic development as conventionally measured; yet along the way succumb to new crises of obesity, smoking, diabetes, depression, and other ills of modern life.”

The researchers further explain that the great thinkers of the human condition and well-being, like Aristotle and Buddha, warned us about our current state of affairs when they ” taught humanity, time and again, that material gain alone will not fulfill our deepest needs. Material life must be harnessed to meet these human needs, most importantly to promote the end of suffering, social justice, and the attainment of happiness. The challenge is real for all parts of the world.”

When it comes to the results of reported average life satisfaction on the Gallup World Poll, Costa Rica is ranked number one, but not on the Cantril ladder. One observation made in the World Happiness Report about Costa Rica is that, like in the United States, there is much inequality and a higher proportion of the population has low life satisfaction.

You can see how the rest of the countries ranked by reading the entire World Happiness Report here (PDF, 158 pages)