2020 Editors: John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve Associate Editors: Lara B. Aknin, Haifang Huang, and Shun Wang Table of Contents World Happiness Report 2020 Foreword . 1 1 Environments for Happiness: An Overview . 3 Helliwell, Layard, Sachs, & De Neve 2 Social Environments for World Happiness . 13 Helliwell, Huang, Wang, & Norton 3 Cities and Happiness: A Global Ranking and Analysis . 47 De Neve & Krekel 4 Urban-Rural Happiness Differentials Across the World . 67 Burger, Morrison, Hendriks, & Hoogerbrugge 5 How Environmental Quality Affects Our Happiness . .95 Krekel & MacKerron 6 Sustainable Development and Human Well-Being . 113 De Neve & Sachs 7 The Nordic Exceptionalism: What Explains Why the Nordic Countries are Constantly Among the Happiest in the World . 129 Martela, Greve, Rothstein, & Saari Annex: Using a New Global Urban-Rural Definition, Called the Degree of Urbanisation, to Assess Happiness . 147 Dijkstra & Papadimitriou Foreword widespread interest. Readers may be drawn in by wanting to know how their nation is faring, This is the eighth World Happiness Report. We but soon become curious about the secrets of use this Foreword, the first we have had, to offer life in the happiest countries. The Gallup team our thanks to all those who have made the has always been extraordinarily helpful and Report possible over the past eight years, and efficient in getting each year’s data available in to announce our expanding team of editors and time for our annual launches on International partners as we prepare for our 9th and 10th Day of Happiness, March 20th. Right from the reports in 2021 and 2022. The first seven reports outset, we received very favourable terms from were produced by the founding trio of co-editors Gallup, and the very best of treatment. Gallup assembled in Thimphu in July 2011 pursuant to researchers have also contributed to the content the Bhutanese Resolution passed by the General of several World Happiness Reports. The value Assembly in June 2011, that invited national of this partnership was recognized by two governments to “give more importance to 1 Betterment of the Human Conditions Awards happiness and well-being in determining how from the International Society for Quality of to achieve and measure social and economic Life Studies. The first was in 2014 for the World development.” The Thimphu meeting, chaired Happiness Report, and the second, in 2017, by Prime Minister Jigme Y. Thinley and Jeffrey D. went to the Gallup Organization for the Gallup Sachs, was called to plan for a United Nations World Poll. High-Level Meeting on ‘Well-Being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm’ held at the From 2020, Gallup will be a full data partner, UN on April 2, 2012. The firstWorld Happiness in recognition of the importance of the Gallup Report was prepared in support of that meeting, World Poll to the contents and reach of the bringing together the available global data on World Happiness Report. We are proud to national happiness and reviewing evidence from embody in this more formal way a history of the emerging science of happiness. co-operation stretching back beyond the first World Happiness Report to the start of the The preparation of the first World Happiness Gallup World Poll itself. Report was based in the Earth Institute at Columbia University, with the research support We have had a remarkable range of expert of the Centre for Economic Performance at the contributing authors over the years, and are London School of Economics (LSE) and the deeply grateful for their willingness to share their Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, knowledge with our readers. Their expertise is through their grants supporting research at the what assures the quality of the reports, and their Vancouver School of Economics at the University generosity is what makes it possible. Thank you. of British Columbia (UBC). The central base for Our editorial team has been broadening over the the reports since 2013 has been the Sustainable years. In 2017, we added Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Haifang Huang, and Shun Wang as Associate The Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) Editors, joined in 2019 by Lara Aknin. From 2020, at Columbia University directed by Jeffrey D. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve has become a co-editor, Sachs. Although the editors and authors are and the Wellbeing Research Centre at the volunteers, there are administrative, and research University of Oxford thereby becomes a fourth support costs covered most recently through a research pole for the Report. series of research grants from the Ernesto Illy Foundation and illycaffè. Sharon Paculor has for several years been the central figure in the production of the reports, Although the World Happiness Reports have and we now wish to recognize her long-standing been based on a wide variety of data, the most dedication and excellent work with the title of important source has always been the Gallup Production Editor. The management of media World Poll, which is unique in the range and has for many years been handled with great comparability of its global series of annual skill by Kyu Lee of the Earth Institute, and we are surveys. The life evaluations from the Gallup very grateful for all he does to make the reports World Poll provide the basis for the annual widely accessible. Ryan Swaney has been our happiness rankings that have always spurred web designer since 2013, and Stislow Design has World Happiness Report 2020 done our graphic design work over the same period. Juliana Bartels, a new recruit this year, has provided an important addition to our editorial and proof-reading capacities. All have worked on very tight timetables with great care and friendly courtesy. Our group of partners has also been enlarged, and now includes the Ernesto Illy Foundation, illycaffè, Davines Group, Blue Chip Foundation, The William, Jeff and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation, and Unilever’s largest ice cream brand Wall’s. Our data partner is Gallup, and Institutional Sponsors now include the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE, the Vancouver School of Economics at UBC, and the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford. For all of these contributions, whether in terms of research, data, or grants, we are enormously grateful. John Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, and Jan Emmanuel De Neve, Co-Editors; Lara Aknin, Haifang Huang and Shun Wang, Associate Editors; and Sharon Paculor, Production Editor 2 Chapter 1 3 Environments for Happiness: An Overview John F. Helliwell Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia Richard Layard Wellbeing Programme, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Political Science Jeffrey D. Sachs President, SDSN Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University Jan-Emmanuel De Neve Director, Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford The authors are grateful for advice and research contributions from Lara Aknin, Martijn Burger, Lewis Dijkstra, Jon Hall, Haifang Huang, Christian Krekel, George MacKerron, Max Norton, Shun Wang, and Meik Wiking. This year the World Happiness Report levels of happiness. Well-being inequality focuses especially on the environment – significantly reduces average life evaluations, social, urban, and natural. suggesting that people are happier to live in societies with less disparity in the quality of life. After presenting our usual country rankings and explanations of life evaluations in Chapter 2, we The next step is to explore what determines turn to these three categories of environment, well-being inequality, and to see how the effects and how they affect happiness. of misfortune on happiness are moderated by the strength and warmth of the social fabric. Life The social environment is dealt with in detail evaluations are first explained at the individual in the later parts of Chapter 2. It is also a main level based on income, health, and a variety of focus of Chapter 7, which looks at happiness measures of the quality of the social environment. in the Nordic countries and finds that higher 4 Several particular risks are considered: ill-health, personal and institutional trust are key factors discrimination, low income, unemployment, 5 in explaining why life evaluations are so high separation, divorce or widowhood, and safety in in those countries. the streets. The happiness costs of these risks Urban life is the focus of Chapter 3, which are very large, especially for someone living in examines the happiness ranking of cities, and of a low-trust social environment. For example, Chapter 4, which compares happiness in cities Marie, who is in good health, employed, married, and rural areas across the world. An Annex with average income, sees herself as free from considers recent international efforts to develop discrimination, and feels safe in the streets at common definitions of urban, peri-urban, and night is estimated to have life satisfaction 3.5 rural communities. points higher, on the 0 to 10 scale, than Helmut, who is in fair or worse health, unemployed, in the The natural environment is the focus of Chapter 5, bottom-fifth of the income distribution, divorced, which examines how the local environment affects and afraid in the streets at night. This is the happiness. Chapter 6 takes a longer and broader difference if they both live in a relatively low-trust focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development environment. But if they both lived where trust in Goals (SDGs). The wide range of the SDGs links other people, government, and the police were them to all three of the environmental themes relatively high, the well-being gap between them considered in other chapters. would shrink by one-third.