Latin Americans rank high in happiness index

Published : 2012-12-23 19:37
Updated : 2012-12-23 19:37

Material wealth may not equate to happiness.

Gallup recently released a poll measuring positive emotions across 148 countries that showed that people in Singapore, which has one of the highest GDPs per capita, were the least happy out of the list. Developed countries Germany and France jointly ranked 47th on the chart.

The nations with the most upbeat attitudes were Panama and Paraguay with 85 percent of respondents answering “yes” to five questions on what positive experiences they had the day before.

Along with the top two countries, the chart’s upper ranks were dominated by the Latin American region including Salvadaor, Venezuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Guatemala, which are all low down on the U.N.’s Human Development Index.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)