Costa Rica News – I always hear that Costa Rica is ranked high as a happy and optimistic country in the world but I wondered of what this index consisted. It seemed strange to me considering there is 21% of the population living in poverty.
Happy Planet insists Costa Rica is the happiest. When it comes to optimism Costa Rica ranks as number 10.
According to this report , Panama ranks first, followed by Paraguay and El Salvador, while Iraq, Armenia and Singapore are the bottom three.
Research was performed in 148 countries and with more than 1,000 surveys to people in these countries over 15 years.
The Surveys Consisted of the Following Questions:
- Did you feel very tired and lathargic yesterday?
- Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?
- Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?
- Did you learn or do something interesting yesterday?
- Was you day filled with positive feelings yesterday?
- Do you consider yourself a happy person?
Then they counted the percentage of people who answered yes to all the questions and on that basis the index was created.
This might be the most worthless index ever done. The sample size of 1000 people over 15 years means nothing. Why don’t we ask real questions of people in Costa Rica and the world?
- Did you help someone yesterday or improve someone’s life?
- Did you show your significant other how much you love them?
- Did you gain knowledge to satisfy your brains thirst for this?
- If you learned you had only 120 days left to live, how would you spend those days?
- What is your favorite saying?
- What is your greatest fear?
- What historical person do you most admire–and why?
- What living person do you most admire–and why?
- On what kind of occasions do you lie?
- What living person do you most despise–and why?
- At what time in your life were you the happiest you can remember being?
- What is your favorite journey so far?
- What is your most prized possession?
- What is your greatest talent?
In this survey performed by Gallup I think optimism = ignorance.
