Happiness and Culture

by Vida Penezic

Abstract

In an attempt to move the conversation about happiness from the focus on the individual onto the happiness of groups, including the socioeconomic and cultural conditions that contribute to it, this paper examines American happiness in the context of the World Happiness Report. Every March, the UN publishes a report that ranks the world’s nations according to their happiness scores, based on the Gallup polls conducted in 150 countries. The respondents are asked to evaluate their satisfaction in six areas: GDP per capita (income), social support (having someone to count on in times of trouble), healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity (because it feels good to do good), and trust (the absence of corruption in business and government). The U.S. was ranked 19 in 2021, rose to 16 in 2022, to 15 in 2023, and fell to 23 in March 2024, the first time it found itself outside of the top twenty since the report’s inception in 2012. Additionally, there is a big gap in happiness of different age groups. Americans over sixty are the 10th happiest old people in the world. Those under thirty, however, are in the 63rd place. What explains this divide? How do the relevant U.S. policies differ from those of the top ranked countries such as Finland and Denmark? Are there some other markers that would describe the American wellbeing more accurately? The answers to these and similar questions might help us chart a path to a greater American happiness.