The exploration of postnormal times, rife with uncertainty and perplexity, often leaves one with feelings of anxiety or even depression. It would appear the last thing one would find in postnormal times is happiness. Yet the human spirit endures.
We strive for happiness especially in the most difficult situations. So much that, in 2012, the UN adopted Resolution 66/281, proclaiming 20 March to be International Day of Happiness. Also in 2012, the UN published the first World Happiness Report. A decade later, they published the second report.
While there are many factors that can be used to measure a country’s performance, citizens’ satisfaction is being taken more and more seriously as a critical indicator in this index. National happiness is now becoming an operational objective for many governments.
But how do you measure something as varied and subjective as happiness?
The report combines several approaches.
It begins by selecting representative samples in different countries to ask people how pleased they are with their lives. But this does not tell the full story. For people to experience satisfaction, other aspects must be present:
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The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita provides an idea of the size and performance of each country’s economy.
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The degree of social support, an indicator that measures people’s capacity of reaching family and/or friends readily when in times of hardship.
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The healthy life expectancy, a value that goes beyond simply longevity to include more holistic perspectives for enjoying quality physical and mental well-being.
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The freedom to make major life choices without discrimination, that might limit one’s right to decide how one ought to live one’s life, and allows for a feeling of protection that increases happiness in the citizenry.
A crucial factor for determining overall happiness in the report is what they call the Ladder Score. This score is the combination of different variables already in the report in order to calculate a figure indicating citizens’ average life estimation by country. The variables were selected to balance reliable, objective indicators and the elements that explain more subjective indicators, such as well-being. The Ladder Score ranges from 1 to 10 and here we can see the sample distribution of the countries included in the report.
Note that not a single Muslim country appears in the Top 20 Countries. The Muslim country with the highest score is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a score of 6.571, ranking at #27. Muslim countries instead feature prominent towards the bottom segment of happiness scores. This includes the only two countries with scores below 3.
To get a better idea of the situation in Muslim countries, we will compare them to the world average over a longer period, specifically from 2006 to 2022. The results are even less optimistic than what was seen in the later segment from 2017 until 2022. This suggests the gap is widening.
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As having modicum of financial resources remains important for people’s well-being, the report also includes Gross Domestic Product per Capita, estimated in terms of Purchasing Power Parity. It is adjusted to constant 2017 international dollars, taken from the World Development Indicators by the World Bank (measured in thousands).
The huge wealth of some Muslim countries grants them a better positioning, as is the case in the UAE ranking #5.
Taking a closer look at some of the report’s variables, the evolution of the Social Support in the last ten years around the world stands out. Here it is important to mention that there are no measurements for all the years considered in every single country. Yet, the graph gives us a good sense of the issue.
Social Support is measured from 0 to 1.
Looking back at the comparison between the world’s average and that of Muslim countries, some conclusions can be drawn regarding Social Support.
First, we can confirm that Muslim countries generally rate worse than the world’s average and that this pattern appears to be widening in recent years.
Second, without the final surge, possibly an immediate effect of the Covid Pandemic, it would be the variable with the lowest improvement over the considered period.
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The Healthy Life Expectancy variable shows that quite often the improvements in longevity are at the cost of spending our final years in diverse situations of functional dependency. Additionally, the report stresses the importance of mental health as it is one aspect that plays an important role in aging healthily.
Again, the comparison between the world’s average performance and that of Muslim countries, in terms of Healthy Life Expectancy, does not look favourable. Yet, it is the variable with the narrowest gap and demonstrates a clear positive evolution. The only deviation from this is seen in the slight decline over the last two years. This is not surprising as the pandemic delt a massive blow to health (especially mental health) around the globe.
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A very important aspect of happiness is the Freedom to Make Life Choices. Since this refers to citizens’ capacity to make their own choices unhindered from restrictions or discrimination, context is very important. Bearing this in mind, it is easy to see which countries are better at removing obstacles to their citizens’ ability to choose freely.
While we cannot ignore the significant impact wealth has on choice, some rich countries rate poorly with less impressive scores than expected.
Freedom to Make Life Choices is measured from 0 to 1.
We can make connections between these trends and previous analysis concerning Freedom Deficit. Freedom Deficit, where we explored perceptions of corruption, can be informative with regards to Happiness. So reviewing this graph gives us valuable insight.
Keep in mind that the Corruption Perception Index ranges from 0 (very corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
Comparing the performance of Muslim countries with the global average, in terms of the Freedom to Make Life Choices, we keep on seeing lower results and a slightly spikier evolution. Beginning in 2013, it appeared Muslim countries were making great strides, but that quickly fell after only a few years, to rise again. In the last couple of years, the gap again appears to be widening.
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Contrary to general expectation, the overall impact of Postnormal Times does not seem to necessarily trigger higher levels of discontent or anxiety. Quite the opposite, as the perceptions seems to be that we are better than we were in the past. Regardless of our scepticism around feelings and perceptions, if our governments would focus more on our well-being and less on conventional and outdated categories used to determine happiness, such as growth or development, vast strides can be made in bridging the gap between indexes and reality.
Global indexes will always be imperfect. This could be due to the technology used or the metrics applied. What truly matters is that an imperfect index can be used to open the pathway for more states and institutions to focus on enabling further, real happiness for all.
