Canada ranks 5th among the world’s happiest nations: report

It's happy hour at the United Nations.

In the World Happiness Report -- an ambitious endeavor taken on by the Jeffrey Sachs' Earth Institute and commissioned for this week's United Nations Conference on Happiness -- Canada places just behind Denmark, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands at the top of the happy scale.

Although there's a definite relationship between the income of the country, and its spot on the list -- with most of the happiest countries found in Northern Europe, and the least happy countries being those in Sub-Saharan Africa -- the authors argue that it's not all about money.

"A household's income counts for life satisfaction," writes Sachs in the report, "but only in a limited way. Other things matter more: community trust, mental and physical health, and the quality of governance and the rule of law."

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The importance of a social life versus money is not news to Toronto-based psychologist, Tami Kulbatski.

"Close relationships with other people are one of the strongest predictors of happiness," she says. "Joining a group that meets just once a month produces the same happiness gains as doubling your income."

The report also finds that unemployment makes people just as unhappy as losing a loved one or going through a separation.

Also, in richer countries women tend to be happier than men, but the results are mixed in poorer countries.

The report also notes that happiness hits a low in middle age. But another, albeit not-so-scientific, survey by a British social-networking website found that respondents only started to feel truly happy at age 33 — which leaves a pretty narrow window for happiness!

According to John Helliwell, a professor of economics at the University of British Columbia and co-editor of the World Happiness Report, the goal of this research is to get politicians thinking about happiness.

"It's being used as part of an effort to show governments that there's a real science behind the measurement of happiness," he tells the Toronto Star.

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But the science is tricky. The report tried to control for the differences in how people experience happiness, and how they remember it — which are very different things. It's not a simple problem.

Nobel laureate and renowned psychologist Daniel Kahneman explains this conundrum in a 2010 Ted talk. "You can know how satisfied somebody is with their life," he says, "but that really doesn't teach you much about how happily they are living their life. And vice versa."

The report is also facing criticism for comparing levels of happiness among countries with drastically different challenges.

"It seems to be striving to equate the relatively minor problems of the Western world," writes National Post columnist Marni Soupcoff, "with the monumental struggles of poor countries overrun with strife and government corruption."

Besides the comparisons, the study's authors hope that taking happiness into account, governments of all countries will move to more effective policies.

But as much as we all strive to attain happiness, psychologist Tami Kulbatski warns that we should put more focus on people we care about and doing acts of kindness, versus the elusive goal of perpetual bliss.

"Instead, spend time with people you care about, do acts of kindness, find meaning in what you do and engage in activities that put you in a state of flow," she says.

"Ironically, by not focusing on happiness as the goal, you are far more likely to become happy."