Since 2004, the Gallup organization and the United Nations have explored the happiness status of people living in its 143 member countries. There’s a historical basis for such studies. The pursuit of happiness ranks high in the first article of the 1787 preamble of the United States Declaration of Independence, following life and liberty as a “self-evident truth and unalienable right.” Perhaps the authors of the declaration understood that happiness is a win-win pursuit because when policymakers enact programs that support the well-being of their constituents, their happy constituents tend to re-elect them.

The World Happiness Study measures well-being as reported by survey respondents. Called “subjective well-being,” the measure relies on life evaluations as the measure of the quality of people’s lives. The Gallup World Poll asks respondents to evaluate their current life as a whole using the image of a ladder, with the best possible life for them as a 10 and the worst possible life as a zero. World Happiness........

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