Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 21

THE HYGGE ISSUE
BY NOW, YOU MAY HAVE HEARD THE NEWS:
Norway unseated Denmark as the happiest country in the
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released last March. In fact, Nordic countries have reliably
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Together, you could call the Nordic countries the
world's happiest region. But the rankings are not a
measure of smiles per capita. Instead they represent
something much harder to achieve: well-being and life
satisfaction for people as a whole.
IMAGINE A LADDER
" As countries go, it really is the golden ticket, "
Trondheim resident Anne Sigrid Refsum told the
U.K. newspaper The Guardian when this year's
rankings came out with Norway on top. (Viking
gathered its own responses from Norwegians this
summer, which you can read on the next page.)
Refsum cited prosperity and safety as reasons why
Norway topped the list. Other Norwegians pointed to
their retirement security, relationship to the land, and
egalitarian society.
BY DENISE LOGELAND
The methodology of the World Happiness Report
does look at factors similar to those, but the rankings
themselves are based on something called the Cantril
ladder. Researchers for the Gallup World Poll, whose
data is used for the World Happiness Report asked
roughly 1,000 people in more than 150 countries this
single question:
" Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from
0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder
represents the best possible life for you and the bottom
of the ladder represents the worst possible life for
you. On which step of the ladder would you say you
personally feel you stand at this time? "
Norway's Cantril number in the 2017 World
Happiness Report was 7.537. At the bottom of the
2017 rankings was the Central African Republic,
where war and instability have dragged the Cantril
average down to just 2.693.
MONEY DOESN'T MEAN HAPPINESS
John Helliwell's job has been to get behind the bare
numbers and explain why they are what they are.
Helliwell, a senior fellow at the Canadian Institute
for Advanced Research and professor emeritus of
economics at the University of British Columbia, has
co-authored all five World Happiness reports. He says
the reports came into being because of a 2011 motion
in the General Assembly of the United Nations. It
recommended that countries adopt the increase of
happiness and well-being as a focus for their national
policies.
" We needed...some umbrella measure of the success
of life that was more than income, " Helliwell says.
Economic indicators like gross domestic product
have traditionally been the measure of whether a
country was doing well, but they leave out most of
what determines people's overall quality of life. And
sonsofnorway.com VIKING SEPTEMBER 2017 21

http://www.sonsofnorway.com

Viking Magazine - September 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Viking Magazine - September 2017

Contents
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - Cover1
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - Cover2
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - Contents
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 4
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 5
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 6
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 7
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 8
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 9
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 10
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 11
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 12
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Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 18
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Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 20
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 21
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - 22
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Viking Magazine - September 2017 - Cover3
Viking Magazine - September 2017 - Cover4
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