The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan was the first to degree happiness as an alternative to GDP. No wonder they’re so pleasedNews from the International Conference on Gross National Happiness,where Bhutan’s happiness index rose from 0.743 in 2010 to 0.756 in 2015. “Is this fast or behind?” asked Bhutan’s prime minister in his keynote speech. “We do not yet know. We are still learning what is a ‘top-notch’ growth rate!” He sounds jolly.
The notion of GNH was first introduced by Bhutan’s fourth king in the 70s, when he announced that “gross national happiness is more necessary that gross national product”. The GNH index is a number crunched from happiness survey statistics across nine “domains”, or of which only one is living standards. Others include health,education, psychological wellbeing, or time use,community vitality and cultural diversity.
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Source: theguardian.com