Vietnam among happiest countries

      Vietnam has been found to be one of the five happiest countries in the world due to its long average lifespan, Vietnamese people’s satisfaction with their lives and low environmental impact level.
A summer day of Vietnamese kids.
The UK-based New Economics Foundation (NEF) announced the Happy Planet Index (HPI) on July 4 for 143 countries in the world.
On the list, Costa Rica is the greenest and happiest country in the world. South American countries take nine of the top ten positions, the sole exception being Vietnam, which checks in at fifth.
Western countries didn’t get high positions on the list, with the UK at the 74th and the US at the 114th, because these countries have high costs of living and they consume a lot of natural resources.
Zimbabwe is at the bottom of the list, 143rd.
According to the report, Costa Rica has an average lifespan of 78.5 and 85 percent of its population are satisfied with their lives. Up to 99 percent of the country’s energy comes from recycled sources.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has an average lifespan of 73.7 and 65 percent of its population are satisfied with their lives.
The Happy Planet Index is an index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in July 2006.
The index is designed to challenge well-established indices of countries’ development, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Human Development Index (HDI), which are seen as not taking sustainability into account.
In particular, GDP is seen as inappropriate, as the usual ultimate aim of most people is not to be rich, but to be happy and healthy. Furthermore, it is believed that the notion of sustainable development requires that we have a measure of the environmental costs of pursuing those goals.

The top ten happy countries:
1. Costa Rica
2. The Dominican Republic
3. Jamaica
4. Guatemala
5. Vietnam
6. Colombia
7. Cuba
8. El Salvador
9. Brazil
10. Honduras