A recent U.N. World Happiness Report ranked Bhutan 97th world-wide. The nine domains are equally weighted because each domain is considered to be equal in terms of its intrinsic importance as a component of GNH. In addition, project screening tools are to be implemented in nearly twenty project areas, including agriculture, forestry, trade and manufacturing, media and information, youths, as well as projects that focus on each of the nine dimensions. All Rights Reserved. “If the policy does not have a good amount of happiness index, if the policy is not every environment friendly, if the policy will not be able to ensure that it will result in the well-being of Bhutanese, that policy will never be approved in the country.”, The Centre for Bhutan and GNH Studies is responsible for administering Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness surveys. Every Thursday he steadily pedals up a steep hill outside Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital city. Economists all over the world have argued that the key to happiness is obtaining and..enjoying... material development..Bhutan however, adheres to a very different belief and.advocates that... amassing material wealth does not necessarily lead to happiness. The GNH index is a holistic approach to measure the happiness and wellbeing of the Bhutanese population. These 9 domains are comprehensive and reflect the general well being of the Bhutanese people. Bhutan Prime Minister Dr. Lotay Tshering in his office. Verification email has been resent. Employing a variant of the Alkire Foster method, the GNH generates three types of results; headcount, intensity and the overall GNH index. The Government of Bhutan’s Centre for Bhutan Studies revised and released an updated GNH index in 2011. Bhutan places a tight control on tourism, including visits to the Tiger's Nest, a sacred Buddhist site on a cliffside. They ask questions such as “How happy did you feel yesterday?” and “How often do you practice meditation?”. The four pillars have been further classified into nine domains in order to create widespread understanding of GNH and to reflect the holistic range of GNH values. “I joined politics to see mainly if I can bring in some policy changes,” he added, “so that with the stroke of my surgical blade, I treat one patient. The house of a working farm sits in a valley nestled in the mountains near the eastern Bhutanese town of Paro. In this blog, we shall try to understand Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index and maybe, from a critically informed view of the same. Therefore, he makes time on Thursdays and Saturdays to pursue his passion, which just happens to reflect his values. Bhutanese average happiness measured 6.05 on … “I thought being religious is the way forward, so on that note I really wanted to be a monk. Bhutan & The Happiness Index : A Force For Change? “But the softer components like psychological well-being or the trust indicator that we have in our community vitality domain, those were deteriorating,” she added. Questionnaire for 2008 Survey It shows us that 40.8% of people in Bhutan have achieved such happiness, and the remaining 59% – who are narrowly happy or unhappy – still enjoy sufficiency in 57% (not 66% as required by the index) of the domains on average. Success! The WHR happiness index is ranked through a Gallup survey on the simple questionnaire of how happy you are on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the happiest. A group of 32.6%, called ‘extensively happy’, have achieved sufficiency in 66-76% – in between 6 and 7 domains. Gross National Happiness Index: The rest of the world, measures their growth and development in economic and quantitative terms, Bhutan is different – it has GNH – Gross National Happiness Index which measures the happiness quotient of every citizen in the country. ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/AFP/Getty Images. “We have to think about the next generations to come,” he added. The Gross Happiness Index is based on human performance in nine chosen domains. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Within each domain, two to four indicators were selected that seemed likely to remain informative across time, had high response rates, and were relatively uncorrelated. In creating the Gross National Happiness Index, Bhutan sought to create a measurement tool that would be useful for policymaking and create policy incentives for the government, NGOs and businesses of Bhutan to increase GNH. The GNH index is based on the Alkire-Foster method of multidimensional measurement, which has been adapted for this purpose. Gross National Happiness Index Gross National Happiness is a term coined by His Majesty the Fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck in the 1970s. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN), Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index, The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), Shades and Breadth of Happiness in the Gross National Happiness Index, Well-being, Happiness and Public Policy (, Multidimensional Poverty in Bhutan: Estimates and Policy Implications (, Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index: Methodology and Results (. “Just over the last three to four decades our life expectancy at birth has increased from near 50 to over 70,” said Lotay. The 2015 survey sampled more than 7,000 Bhutanese from across the country. Bhutan is not the happiest country in the world. Don’t be jealous with others, be happy with what you have, be compassionate, be a society where you can be more than happy to share. However, Bhutan continues to be a least developed country but it doesn’t seem to affect negatively the Brutanese people. Explore Bhutan's unique measure of development and its implications. Queen Elizabeth House (QEH), University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, UK The analysis explores the happiness people enjoy already, then focuses on how policies can increase happiness and sufficiency among the unhappy and narrowly happy people. You are here: Home » Policy & Impact » Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index. Bhutan is known as "the last Shangri-La" -- a remote Himalayan nation, rich in natural beauty and Buddhist culture, where national happiness is prioritized over economic growth. Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity accounts for the largest share of its economy. Water flows through tunnels at the site of the Punatsangchhu hydro-electric power project in Wangdue, Bhutan. Note on human rights In 2011, the UN unanimously adopted a General Assembly resolution, introduced by Bhutan with support from 68 member states, calling for a “holistic approach to development” aimed at promoting sustainable happiness and wellbeing. It is a holistic reflection of the general wellbeing of the Bhutanese population rather than a subjective psychological ranking of ‘happiness’ alone. The 33 indicators are statistically reliable, are normatively important, and are easily understood by large audiences. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. The concept behind the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index is that well-being should not solely be based on economic success and that development cannot be sustainable without accounting for the more holistic aspects of progress. “There’s another misunderstanding … that Bhutan has claimed that we’re the happiest country,” said Tshoki. The GNH Index is also known as the GNH Happiness Survey. “When we say Gross National Happiness, it is not the celebrative ‘Ha ha – Ho ho’ kind of happiness that we look for in life,” Lotay explained. Sale of medicines like anti-depressants is measured an… His goal is the 169-foot-tall Buddha Dordenma statue, one of the largest in the world. It actually ranks 95th out of 156 countries in the 2019 World Happiness Report. My mother said why not be a doctor so that you can be really of help to the needy ones and so … I decided to be a doctor.”. Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Oxford Department of International Development PHOTO: In 2007, Bhutan had the second fastest growing GDP in the world, at the same time as maintaining their environment and cultural … The first WHR report dedicated a full section to Bhutan GNH Index. The Index, the headcount, and intensity are all ‘decomposable’, meaning they can be broken down by population group, for example, to show the composition of GNH among men and among women, or by district, and by dimension, for example to show which group is lacking in education. Two surveys have been conducted so far, in 2010 and 2015, with another one due next year. Bhutan's fierce commitment to preserving culture — one of its four pillars of happiness — may have worked, but critics say it has come at an enormous cost for the country's ethnic minority. By continuing without changing your cookie settings, we assume you agree to this. Everything—from governance and economic development to cultural preservation and environmental conservation—is decided according to this holistic tenet, designed to measure and protect the collective happiness … Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. Bhutan's Punakha Dzong, a fortress built in the 17th century, sits in the pristine Punakha Valley. Bhutan achieves a Happy Planet Index Score of - and ranks -of all the countries analysed. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. They created an indexation for happiness based on multiple measurable factors, and have kept track of this index … The Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) is a social science research institute which conducts inter-disciplinary studies on Bhutan for advancing its social, cultural, economic and political wellbeing. The 2011 GNH index identifies four groups of people. “We do not put personal interest ahead of national interest. The objectives of Bhutan, and the Buddhist understandings of happiness, are much broader than those that are referred to as ‘happiness’ in the Western literature. PHOTO: 2. Password reset email has been resent. In the last census carried out in 2015 by the Ministry of happiness, 35% of the population answered ’extremely happy’, 47.9% said they felt ’moderately happy’, and only 8.8% of respondents … Gross National Happiness in Practice. On the eastern edge of the Himalayas, nestled between India and Tibet, lies the tiny nation of Druk Yul, better known as Bhutan. Please click the button below to agree to our Terms and Conditions and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. “Our vision is to reach a state where societies have all the enabling conditions intact, not only the economic aspects but the other aspects as well, such as the environment, the community, having access to health and education and so on.”. Success! Professor Layard wrote that "The Gross National Happiness Index is the first of its kind in the world, a serious, thoughtful, and sustained attempt to measure happiness, and use those measurements to chart the course of public policy." Rugged terrain, frequent floods and landslides hinder development; urban-rural connectivity is poor. The definition of the Happiness Index originates from the Bhutanese Gross National Happiness Index. As a urologist and surgeon for more than 20 years, being a doctor is an integral part of what makes him happy. The GNH measure has been designed to fulfil various criteria which are needed for an official national measure of happiness that is also relevant to national and district policy. © 2020 Cable News Network. Thousand of kilometers of roads have been constructed and phone lines installed. Happiness Index of Bhutan: Method and Illustrative Results Dasho Karma Ura, Sabina Alkire, Tshoki Zangmo The Centre for Bhutan Studies, Thimphu Presented by Sabina Alkire, OPHI, Univ. The Centre for Bhutan Studies constructed the GNH Index using robust multidimensional methodology known as Alkire-Foster method. Read below to know about the GNH and its 4 pillars of happiness: After his bike ride, the Prime Minister makes his way to the hospital for rounds. CNN’s Samantha Bresnahan and Sugam Pokharel contributed to this report. “Our king rightly calls Gross National Happiness as development with values,” Lotay continues. We use cookies to help give you the best experience on our website. Bhutan is famously the only country in the world to rank Gyalyong Gakid Palzom, or Gross National Happiness (GNH), above GDP. But how are we doing – as a country, a society? You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The GNH Index value for 2010 is 0.737. He exercises daily, but one day is special. They measure nine key areas of happiness every five years – psychological well-being, health, education, good governance, ecology, time use, community vitality, culture and living standards. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. To answer that question, Bhutan uses its Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index. The country may not rank highest in happiness, yet, but it has made major gains. “When we know that monetary wealth and material wealth will not translate to what you actually want in your life … peace of mind and happiness … then why should we target that as our main objective? The Gross National Happiness Index is a single number index developed from the 33 indicators categorised under nine domains. Bhutan is.now trying to.measure... progress not by the popular idea of … If an account exists, we've sent an email with a link to reset your password. In December 2005, the government asked the CBS to study Bhutan’s development concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), develop GNH index … PHOTO: The nation only opened its doors to tourism in the 1970s and has decided to take a unique approach to westernization, creating a concept known as the “Gross National Happiness Index.”. This is not just a measure of how much people smile and laugh. According to the last GNH Survey conducted by the Centre for Bhutan Studies and Gross National Happiness in 2015, the 2015 GNH index showed that on the scale of zero to one, the happiness of the Bhutanese has increased from 0.743 in 2010 to 0.756 in 2015. This was followed in April 2012 by a UN High-Level Meeting on “Happiness and Wellbeing: Defining a New Economic Paradigm” designed to bring world leaders, experts and civil society and spiritual leaders together to develop a new economic paradigm based on sustainability and wellbeing. “I thought we could improve the accessibility of health care services to especially the needy ones, those who are based in the villages,” he said, adding that “this pair of hands can only do so much. “We in Bhutan are very unique; our democracy is very, very unique … in the sense we all are grounded very strongly by our national values,” said Bhutan Prime Minister Dr. Lotay Tshering, who took office in November 2018. Since then the idea of Gross National Happiness (GNH) has influenced Bhutan’s economic and social policy, and also captured the imagination of others far beyond its borders. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. “So, these are the values of Gross National Happiness that we practice. The World Bank calls Bhutan a developmental success story, with decreasing levels of extreme poverty and improvements in gender equality, as well as a stable political and economic environment. To manage it within the country’s Gross National Happiness mandate, Bhutan imposes an ecotourism tax of $250 a day per person, which they use to offset the environmental impact of thousands of visitors. Plastic bags have been banned since 1999. As he makes his hospital rounds with residents and interns, Lotay tries to instill the same values he has practiced, values he says he tries to bring to how he approaches two of Bhutan’s top goals: universal healthcare and education. of Oxford 12 October, 2011, OECD The process of measuring the Gross National Happiness started when Bhutan began to open up to globalization and began measuring its GNH based on its four pillars. The World Happiness Report is a publication of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, powered by data from the Gallup World Poll, and supported by the Ernesto Illy Foundation, illycaffè, Davines Group, Blue Chip Foundation, the William, Jeff, and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation, and … Bhutan has continually been ranked as the happiest country in all of Asia, and the eighth Happiest Country in the world according to Business Week. The environment is central to Bhutan's "gross national happiness" index. The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of the United … Also, it is the only country that measures its Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index. It includes the nine domains which are further supported by the 33 indicators. “I don’t think we’re the happiest country. Under the title of happiness in GNH comes a range of domains of human wellbeing including traditional areas of social concern such as living standards, health, and education, while some are less traditional, such as time use, psychological well-being, culture, community vitality, and environmental diversity. The country has long partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to protect native wildlife in numerous parks. With the stroke of a pen I can treat the whole nation.”. Updated To complete your CNN profile and ensure you are able to receive important account information, please verify your email address. A total of 48.7% of people have sufficiency in 50-65% of domains and are called ‘narrowly happy’. The concept of GNH has often been explained by its four pillars; good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental conservation. The index hasn't solved all the country's problems, of course. The indicators and domains aim to emphasise different aspects of wellbeing, and different ways of meeting underlying human needs. In Bhutanese, the name means “Land of the Thunder Dragon,” a nod to the violent storms that pound the rugged mountain peaks and flood the lush valleys. It identifies four groups of people – unhappy, narrowly happy, extensively happy, and deeply happy. Happiness indexed. “When we say stronger, it just does not mean the muscle strength,” Lotay says. Tshering visits with a patient on hospital rounds. In order to have one overall index, the GNH cut off was set at 66% of the variables, which is the middle cutoff used above. This builds on the Government of Bhutan’s pioneering work to develop the GNH Index. Psychological wellbeing: Psychological well being is based on the number of mental health cases being registered in Bhutan. “It only means contentment, control of your mind, control of wants in your life. Within each domain, the objective indicators are given higher weights while the subjective and self-reported indicators are assigned far lighter weights. The phrase ‘gross national happiness’ was first coined by the 4th King of Bhutan, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in 1972 when he declared, “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product.” The concept implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing. The 2010 Gross National Happiness survey of 7,146 people asked them to rate their subjective well-being on a scale of 0–10. “But what sets Bhutan apart from the other countries is that our vision is clear,” she added. Right now, said Lotay, they are at 70%. So those are the ingredients to help your neurons to be very strong.”. This translates into an overall increase of 1.8%. Much of that has to do with the nation’s poverty, and the challenges of bringing economic and social equity to a predominately agricultural society. A monastery on a hilltop in the Haa valley, Bhutan. The phrase ‘gross national happiness’ was first coined by the 4th King of Bhutan, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in 1972 when he declared, “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product.” The concept implies that sustainable development should take … This ‘GNH Policy Lens’ requires that the policy consequences on all relevant dimensions be considered prior to implementation. People who have achieved sufficiency in less than 50% are ‘unhappy’, and they comprise 10.4% of the population. The Scandinavian countries like Norway and Denmark are on top 5 scoring above 7.00 while Bhutan’s score is 5.08. Tobacco has been banned since 2005, making Bhutan the world’s first smoke-free nation. The GNH Index this year is 0.756, improving on the 2010 value of 0.743. “With modernization, with decent access to good health care, more nutritious food and health awareness being better day by day, so many Bhutanese now live longer.”. One only needs to follow 50-year-old Lotay to see the Bhutanese way in action. “Health and education are the most powerful social levelers,” the Prime Minister says. For policy purposes it identifies ‘happiness’ as comprising sufficient achievements in 66% of the weighted indicators, whichever domains they come from. Headcount refers to the percentage of Bhutanese people who are happy, while intensity is the average number of domains in which not-yet-happy people are happy. The GNH Index is decomposable by any demographic characteristic, meaning it can be broken down by population group, for example, to show the composition of GNH among men and among women, or by district, and by dimension, for example to show which group is lacking in education. This corresponds to the groups who are identified as ‘extensively’ and ‘deeply’ happy. In 1972, Bhutan started prioritizing happiness over other factors such as wealth, comfort and economic growth. Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index. Questionnaire for 2015 Survey. The Bhutanese constitution mandates that at least 60% of the country remain under forest cover. Bhutan’s GNH Index consists of nine … Despite the need for economic growth, the Prime Minister is confident those priorities will not change for the Bhutanese people. It’s been so successful that Bhutan says it’s not only carbon-neutral, it’s carbon-negative. It yielded some interesting results. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The GNH index supports policy-making within Bhutan. ED JONES/AFP/AFP/Getty Images. Bhutan’s 2015 Gross National Happiness Index “How are you?” We ask that question of one another often. Scandinavian countries like Norway and Denmark are top five, scoring above 7.00, while Bhutan’s is 5.08. While it is free, it is not easily accessible, easily available for everyone that needs the service. Let’s have a look at each of these 9 domains: 1. People are considered happy when they have sufficiency in 66% of the (weighted) indicators or more – that is, when they were identified as extensively happy or deeply happy. PHOTO: There are 33 indicators in the 9 domains above and the Index seeks to measure the nation’s wellbeing directly by starting with each person’s achievements in each indicator. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. It aims to reflect the happiness and general wellbeing of the Bhutanese population more accurately and profoundly than a monetary measure. The stated goal is that all government projects and policies work together to maximize GNH. “It means the mental strength, the strength of your neurons. PHOTO: Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a global indicator of progress, which measures both sustainable economy and social development, while protecting the environment and culture.. GNH was born from the realization that the existing development paradigm of the 1970’s, measuring solely the accelerations and decelerations GNP (or GDP), did not mean increasing/decreasing happiness … “Since I come from a traditional family, I always thought we should help others,” Lotay says. “If the government cannot create happiness for its people, then there is no purpose for government to exist.”-Bhutan’s Ancient Legal Code of 1629 Postal address and map. “So based on that, we have free health and free education in our country. That’s why economically we may not be doing very well because all those checks and balances will ensure that whatever we initiate will be sustainable, will be for generations to come.”. His mission is two-fold: exercise to strengthen his body, and prayer and meditation to strengthen his mind. It actually ranks 95th out of 156 countries in the 2019 World Happiness Report. These cookies do not store any personal information. 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