Costa Rica is the happiest country in the world

Taken from: www.nacion.com

Costa Rica heads the list in the happiness index of the British organization, The New Economics Foundation, a company that every two years publishes a report that measures the happiness of the inhabitants of 143 countries. The second place is occupied by the Dominican Republic, followed by Australia in the third place.

The index uses three variables for the classification: life expectancy upon being born, level of satisfaction from the inhabitants of each country and ecological practices.

"In Costa Rica, the life expectancy upon being born is 78.5 years, 85% of the Costa Ricans polled said to be happy and to be satisfied with their lives. The country is very near in reaching equilibrium among what is consumed and what the natural resources have to offer" declared Nic Mars, one of the authors of the report.

The document added that the Costa Ricans gave their country a qualification of 8.5 and a 9.2 to their life, the highest of the study.

The investigation emphasized that the life expectancy of Costa Ricans are also the second highest of the world, only surpassed by Canada.

Relative happiness. For the sociologist Andrea Fonseca, the country gives tools to its citizens to help them gain happiness. The happiness cannot be measured alone by the expectation of life of a country and its ecological practices. She explained: "A lot has to do with the imaginary facto that Costa Rica is a country of peace and with great quantity of flora and fauna, of protected zones, where the people are “pura vida”; which means, kind, respectful and supportive.

Her colleague Montserrat Sagot holds the same opinion.

"This responds to a historic vision of the Costa Rican maintained for a long time. We feel proud to be a different country, the Central American Switzerland which means that we are a beautiful country of pretty people and of peace, we feel proud because the majority of Costa Ricans believe that this country is better than other of Central America. Also, upon seeing the reality of the other countries, where there are coup d'etats, terrorist attacks, gangs, and more employment loss, the Costa Rican individual feels tranquil of living in Costa Rica", Sagot commented.