News
New Economics Foundation Publishes 2012 Happy Planet Index
Published 19 June 2012 in Sustainable Development
As governments at Rio+20 deliberate on developing indicators of progress that go ‘beyond GDP’, the new economics foundation (nef) has published the latest annual update to its Happy Planet Index, which ranks 151 countries according to the extent to which each nation produces long and happy lives per unit of environmental input.
Published on 14 June, nef’s Happy Planet Index ranks countries by analysing: global data on life expectancy; experienced well-being, and; Ecological Footprint. The report’s authors argue that using only economic measures such as GDP to measure a country’s progress is insufficient and misleading.
The Index revealed Costa Rica as the highest ranking country according to nef’s measures of progress, although no country performed well against all three of nef’s principal indicators.
Costa Rica was found to have a very high life expectancy, experienced well-being higher than many richer nations, and had a per capita Footprint one third the size of the USA’s.
The highest ranking Western European nation was Norway in 29th place, just behind New Zealand in 28th.
Access nef’s Happy Planet Index.
Summary of HPI findings from Juliet Michaelson via SD Scene.
Other related information
Oxfam’s Humankind Index for Scotland.
Nef’s Well-being Evidence for Policy: A review.
UK Office of National Statistics – Measuring National Well-being Project.
Carnegie UK report More than GDP: measuring what matters.