Vietnam is No.5 in Life Satisfaction
Out of 143 countries, Vietnam is fifth highest in life satisfaction per unit of planetary resources consumed. Since 2006, NEF, an independent think tank, has been using what it calls a Happy Planet Index (HPI) to measure each country’s ability to produce “happy life” through consumption of the earth’s finite resources. HPI is essentially a efficiency measure: “well-being delivered per unit of environmental impact.” The three driving indicators of this index are: ecological footprint, life-satisfaction and life expectancy.
Trailing Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Guatemala, Vietnam enjoys a higher life expectancy than many European countries (73.7 years) and correspondingly higher level of life satisfaction (6.5). Relative to the more industrialized world, it comes to no surprise that Vietnam’s ecological footprint is only 1.3. While the US, ranked 114, has an ecological footprint of 9.4.
