Singapore ranked 90th in latest Happy Planet Index

By Melissa Law | Yahoo! Newsroom – Fri, Jun 15, 2012

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Are Singaporeans a happy lot? Not quite, if the latest Happy Planet Index (HPI) is anything to go by.

The index measures how governments from around the world provide long, happy and sustainable lives for their people, based on three factors: life expectancy, happiness and environmental sustainability.

The results from the 2012 study, which was released on Thursday, ranked Singapore a lowly 90th out of 151 countries. Coming in top for the second year running is Costa Rica, while the highest-ranked Asian country is Vietnam (second). Hong Kong, in 102th position, is the only Asian nation that is ranked lower than Singapore.

Singapore scored well in life expectancy and well-being, but did poorly in environmental sustainability. Overall, it scored 39.8.

The Lion City performed better in the same study done in 2009, where it was ranked 49 out of 143 countries, with a score of 48.2.

But its showing this year is an improvement from 2006, where it came in at 131st position, out of 178 countries, with a score of just 36.1.

For more information on how the Happy Planet Index is calculated, go to http://www.happyplanetindex.org/about/

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