Actually I lied. Among 178 countries in the world, there are 6 countries which are more unhappy than Estonia: Ukraine, Congo, Burundi, Swasiland and Zimbabwe. This according to the New Economic Foundation study Happy Planet Index (here is the PDF).
And guess what – I believe it is all true! Estonians die young, work too hard, worry too much, spend too little time with their friends and families, drink and smoke too much (and die!), do not care about our beautiful nature and environment etc.
Many people in post-communist countries say that they were happier in soviet times. This is true for many of them, free fast-growing capitalist society does not equal happiness.
This is a good reality check to realign their priorities in life.
That’s a very interesting report… it came to no surprise to me that Costa Rica is the third happiest country on Earth. I am from Spain (a pretty happy country too) and moved to Costa Rica in 2004, and although I think this is no paradise, I find that most people are happy and peaceful.
However, one of the countries that I have enjoyed the most (Japan) comes in 95th place… that was rather disappointing.