Brits and Turks happiest Europeans, according to map on Internet

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I am very surprised to see England’s rating on that map.

Consider that we have much of the political establishment plus media openly hostile to the EU and doing everything they can to scapegoat much of the country’s self-inflicted problems onto foreigners… (when they’re not scapegoating the poor and/or vulnerable that is)

Has the survey confused the “Mustn’t Grumble” ethos of the British with actual contentment?

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To be green you only need 50%. Perhaps it’s more an indicator of how completely miserable it is in Europe (and how happy they are to say they are unhappy, cf @Dire)

I’m Lithuanian, and I’m not happy about this.

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Information from Reddit, unsourced, seven years old. I’m not sure I would make life decisions on this basis alone.

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Be happy.

The North of England you say…

Minor quibble, but the smaller outpost of joy in Sweden looks to be at least the size of a number of European countries, including Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, etc. And if the map is a Mercator projection, that’s an even larger plot of land than it seems. Doesn’t make sense to lump Sweden in with the less-happy instead of including it in the list with Scotland and Turkey.

Could the map be deformed so the region area corresponds to the number of people there?

I was under the impression the Danes were the happiest in Europe, with Norwegians and Swedes close behind.

I would be surprised if language and cultural aspects didn’t play a large role in these results. In some languages/cultures, “happiness” may suggest something like “overwhelming bliss,” while in others it might mean “not in too much pain or particularly melancholy at the moment.”

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I’m always skeptical of “happiness” measurement of any kind.

The map, whose provenance and sourcing is unclear

Particularly hard to even take seriously something when we don’t even know where it came from. :smile:

That was my thought about Germany, as there is a cultural block in many regions to even admitting happiness. Being happy is often seen as being a slacker, not being able to see all the things you’re supposed to worry about. Happy people never improve their lot, yadda yadda. Never, ever tell a stranger that you’re happy. :neutral_face:

Go further east, and the proximity to the famed Russian pessimism plays a role as well, I suspect.

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