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Sunday, May 18, 2008

Iceland has the Happiest People in the World


This blog is mostly about depression and it's treatment. Today some happy news.

Iceland, the block of sub-Arctic lava to which these statistics apply, tops the latest table of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Index rankings, meaning that as a society and as an economy - in terms of wealth, health and education - they are champions of the world.


And why is that?

  • It is the country with the sixth highest GDP per capita in the world

  • Where people buy the most books

  • Where life expectancy for men is the highest in the world, and not far behind for women

  • It's the only country in NATO with no armed forces (they were banned 700 years ago)

  • The highest ratio of mobile telephones to population

  • The fastest-expanding banking system in the world

  • Rocketing export business

  • Crystal-pure air

  • Hot water delivered to all Icelandic households straight from the earth's volcanic bowels

  • and so on and so forth...



Want to know how this came about, read the excellent article John Carlin on The Guardian: No wonder Iceland has the happiest people on earth.
It has something to do with them Vikings.



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