From rank 25, The Philippines jumped up five places to snag the 20th place on the Happy Planet Index 2016 (HPI) of the happiest countries in the world.

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Philippines got an overall status of 35, while the “happiest country in the world” Costa Rica got a score of 44.7.

Records from the 2016 list used figures from 2012 supplied by the Gallup World Poll, the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, and the Global Footprint Network.

While low poor quality in three out of four aspects, the Philippines rating was elevated by its ecological footprint score.

The average life expectancy in the Philippines is 67.9, fairing much better than Southeast Asian neighbors Myanmar (65.5) and Cambodia (67.5), however position below Thailand (74.1), Malaysia (74.4), and Vietnam (75.5). Data for Singapore, Laos, and Brunei was not available.

Average well-being in the Philippines was graded at 5, slipping again in the middling range. In the study conducted by the Gallup World Poll, the figures signify steps on the ladder, in which 10 is the best possible life for the citizen and 0 signifies the worst.

These figures were pulled up by the Philippines’ positive ecological footprint of 1.1, as shown in the formula used HPI.

happyplanetindex

happyplanetindex

The United States and Japan, for instance, had green ratings in life expectancy along with average well-being, yet had red ratings for ecological footprint.

Luxembourg, which had high, green marks across the board ranked 139 out of 140 due to a 15.8 ecological footprint score.

The overall rating could also be pulled down by the Inequality of Comes or the “measure of how unequal the distribution of life expectancy and experienced well-being scores are within a particular country.”

The top 20 happiest countries are:

• Costa Rica, 44.7 [Previous rank: 1]
• Mexico, 40.7 [Previous rank: 22]
• Colombia, 40.7 [Previous rank: 3]
• Vanuatu, 40.6 [Previous rank: n/a]
• Vietnam, 40.3 [Previous rank: 2]
• Panama, 39.5 [Previous rank: 7]
• Nicaragua, 38.7 [Previous rank: 8]
• Bangladesh, 38.4 [Previous rank: 11]
• Thailand, 37.3 [Previous rank: 20]
• Ecuador, 37.0 [Previous rank: 23]
• Jamaica, 36.9 [Previous rank: 6]
• Norway, 36.8 [Previous rank: 29]
• Albania, 36.8 [Previous rank: 18]
• Uruguay, 36.1 [Previous rank: 93]
• Spain, 36.0 [Previous rank: 62]
• Indonesia, 35.7 [Previous rank: 14]
• El Salvador, 35.6 [Previous rank: 5]
• Netherlands,35.3 [Previous rank: 67]
• Argentina, 35.2 [Previous rank: 17]
• Philippines, 35.0 [Previous rank: 25]

Rock bottom ratings belong to Benin (13.4), Togo (13.2), Luxembourg (13.2), and Chad (12.8).

Source: happyplanetindex.org