If you’re looking for the happiest place to live and make a new life, according to the Happy Planet Index, you can’t do much better than Mexico. In fact, you could only do one better than Mexico: Costa Rica.
Mexico Comes 2nd as Happiest Place to Live
Yes, it’s official! According to the Happy Planet Index, an index which is called a measure of “sustainable” wellbeing by its creator, Mexico is the 2nd happiest place to live out of all 140 countries surveyed. Factors like life expectancy and general “wellbeing” were taken into consideration too.
Data Places Mexico among the Top Countries
Research firm, Gallup, collected data centered on a number of specific issues and factors for the index, these include wellbeing, life expectancy, ecological footprint, and equality, amongst others. Mexico was found to come 39th overall for life expectancy, 76.4 years, and 11th for overall happiness and wellbeing with the average Mexican giving a 7.3 out of 10. Performance was similar in a few other fields. In terms of “ecological footprint”, that is the impact per head on the environment, Mexico came 77th, and in “equality of outcomes”, a measure of how consistently wellbeing and life expectancy is spread throughout a population, Mexico ranked 60th.
This might seem confusing given the overall ranking of 2nd, but the truth is that happiness and wellbeing on such a large scale is a very thorny and complex issue. For example, the USA is a country which has an economy five times larger than Mexico, and yet its ecological footprint/impact per head is almost triple that of its smaller neighbour. Wellbeing, too, fell below Mexican standards in the USA. This could be due to a number of factors which include attitude, outlook, and other personal and social issues.
Why is Mexico a happy place to live?
The Happy Planet Index does cite a few tangible reasons as to why Mexico packs a bigger punch than some of its larger challengers; measures taken to conserve the environment and biodiversity in recent years might be having an effect. Likewise the introduction of universal health coverage in 2012, and the 2014 soft drinks tax are cited as things that are “working well in Mexico”.
See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/index-ranks-mexico-as-2nd-happiest-country/?utm_source=fb#sthash.spg1TwQb.dpuf