Where all the happy people are

SUVA – Forget police brutality claims and plots to overthrow the government – Fiji has polled highly on the Global Happiness Barometer, beating 66 other countries to be listed as the second happiest country in the world for 2015.

The survey was conducted by the Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research (WIN) and took into account the views and beliefs of 66,040 people from 68 countries across the globe.

Eighty-six per cent of Fijians said they were happy while just four per cent said they were unhappy giving the country a net happiness rating of 82 per cent.

Colombia was the happiest country in the world with a net happiness rating of 85 per cent.

Fiji was ranked as the happiest country in the world last year.

The survey was conducted by WIN’s member in the region Tebutt Reasearch and principal Caz Tebbutt said the results were positive for Fiji.

“Fiji is a consistent performer on the happiness index, and when you combine this with the results on the hope index and the economic optimism index, it would be fair to say that confidence is strong looking to 2016,” she said.

President of WIN Jean-Marc Leger said though 2015 had been a tumultuous year for many across the globe, the world remained largely a happy place.

“Forty five per cent of the world is optimistic regarding the economic outlook for 2016, up by three per cent compared to last year,” he said.

In each country a representative sample of about 1000 men and women over the age of 18 were interviewed either face to face, via telephone or online.

The field work was conducted during September to December 2015 and Fiji’s field work was completed in November 2015.

- Fiji Times