The New Economics Foundation (NEF) recently released their Happy Planet Index Report 2.0. As explained on their site the Happy Planet Index reveals the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered. The index combines environmental impact with human well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which, country by country, people live long and happy lives. Learn about the ideas behind the HPI, how it is calculated, why we need it and what it can teach us. I just looked through the site and the study is really interesting.

This year Latin American and Caribbean were listed on nine of the top ten slots for happiest nations with Costa Rica being number one followed by the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, and Vietnam. The US was listed at slot 114.

So why are Latin Americans so happy? According to the report they are “much less concerned with material issues than, for example, they are with their friends and family.” Also they have great progress in ecological sustainability, such as Costa Rica’s near elimination of fossil fuel energy generation and Colombia’s “Green Constitution.” And Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction in the world and have the second-highest average life expectancy of the Americas (second only to Canada).