The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) has recently unveiled the results of the Philippines Happiness Index (HPI). The NSCB study is a local version of the Happy Planet Index launched in 2006 by the New Economics Foundation based in Great Britain where the Philippines ranked 17th among 178 countries surveyed.
The local HPI as published in the NSCB website qualifies that "In the formulation of the Philippine Happiness Index (PHI), we were guided by the following premises: economic progress and happiness are not synonymous, Philippine progress should capture the happiness of the (individual) Filipinos, the PHI should not be normative and the PHI should recognize individual differences in terms of the sources or domains of happiness and the importance attached to each domain.
Here goes the statistics. The study ranks Family with an index of 88.46; followed by friends (83.57); religious/spiritual work (79.81); love life (79.37); and health (78.02) - as the top five sources or domain of happiness of Filipinos. Surprisingly sex life only ranks 7th with an index of 72.57, while politics is at the bottom with 25.49. Is this proof that people are fed up with politicians?
Other findings. The study also showed that (a) pinoys are happier with domains within their control; (b) six (6) out of ten (10) believe that progress is synonymous with happiness; (c) women are happier than men; and (d) happiness rises with income.
