Measuring and Visualising Global Happiness

Happiness scores from the World Happiness Reports have been examined alongside data from the World Health Organisation and the World Bank to show that happiness is an effective measure of well-being. There is a strong correlation between happiness and GDP and other factors such as years of schooling and life expectancy. Using data from the World Health Organisation and World Bank, the happiness of a nation can be predicted with a RMSE of 0.3. Perhaps, predicting the happiness of a community, nation or industry can help inform interactive digital interventions for happiness building. Possible, such measures could also feature as predictors in affective computing contexts or indeed via social media.