March 28, 2024

UBC prof to measure happiness levels around the world

John Helliwell is in pursuit of happiness.

Helliwell, a University of B.C. economist and one of the leading minds in the field of happiness research, has been given the big task of measuring the current state of happiness around the world.

He was recently asked to help the United Nations on a World Happiness Report that will be presented at a special UN meeting on April 2 in New York City.

The meeting was a result of a resolution introduced by Bhutan and adopted by the UN in July of last year, which proposed happiness as a goal for all nations.

Helliwell says he, along with colleagues, had been made responsible for making the report and they will be drawing together various sources that measure global happiness.

“It’s the first one since nobody has tried to do it … and this will explain what science has to say about it,” Helliwell says, adding the data will help with the UN’s efforts to improve life satisfaction with public policies and strategies.

“The primary objective is to get the countries themselves collecting this data in a systematic and large-scale way so they know not just what a national average is, but how happy people (in various demographic groups) are in various parts of the country,” he adds.

“When they start re-thinking and redesigning the way they deliver health care, education and so on, they think about well-being and they measure it before and after changes. That then helps them to find ways of doing more with making people happy, which is the purpose of these services in the first place.”

Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver

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