World Cup Happiness! Try our World Happiness Index activity

World Cup fever has truly arrived. For those of us supporting England, well, hope is alive for a few more hours at least.

Here's an activity you may like to try with your remaining Year 12 students.  It uses our ever popular 'Higher or Lower' template but applies the technique to consider the 32 World Cup countries and their ranking in the World Happiness Index.  The WHI is becoming an ever more credible indicator of economic success as it uses the relative wealth of a nation alongside other indicators such as equality, education and a sense of safety to 'judge' how happy a nation may be.

There are over 150 countries in the index, including the 32 nations involved in the World Cup.  Sadly, relative success in the tournament is not used as an indicator of happiness - otherwise Mexico may well be ranking as the highest country!

In any one round, the player has to say whether one country has a higher ranking than the last country shown.  5 countries are shown in any one game.  Remember, in this activity, the lower the number the better the outcome (i.e. being ranked 5th in the index is better than being ranked 10th).

Good luck!