How happy are you today?

Is it money or happiness that makes the world go round? When we discuss standard of living in the classroom we say that the main indicator is GDP or GDP per head. This is a good measure because it is easy to assess and compare.
Now the UK government are going to gauge how happy we are with a happiness index.

The UK government is to start measuring people’s psychological and environmental wellbeing, meaning they will be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness. The Office of National Statistics will shortly be producing measures to implement David Cameron’s long-stated ambition of gauging “general wellbeing”.
Countries such as France and Canada are looking at similar initiatives as governments around the world come under pressure to put less store on conventional economic measures of prosperity such as gross domestic product.
For further information read this article.

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