Perhaps money really doesn’t buy happiness!
A recent survey finds a relatively poor country has some of the world’s happiest people — while the least happy live in one of the wealthiest nations.
The Gallup poll ranks Panama as having the “population with the most positive emotions.”
Eighty-five percent of Panamanians responded to questions about their overall well-being with positive answers.
That’s in spite of Panama ranking just 90th worldwide in gross domestic product, a measurement of wealth.
Coming in dead last is Singapore with the highest GDP in the world.
Only 46 percent of Singapore residents answered “yes” to questions about whether they smiled a lot or felt treated with respect. That’s worse than places like Syria, Afghanistan and Haiti.
As for Americans, the survey found there seems to be a limit on how much money affects happiness.
Gallup reports no increase in daily happiness for people with incomes more than $75,000 a year, compared to people who earn less.
Top 10 happy countries
- Panama (85%)
- Paraguay (85%)
- El Salvador (84%)
- Venezuela (84%)
- Trinidad and Tobago (83%)
- Thailand (83%)
- Guatemala (82%)
- Philippines (82%)
- Ecuador (81%)
- Costa Rica (81%)
10 least happy countries
- Singapore (46%)
- Armenia (49%)
- Iraq (50%)
- Georgia (52%)
- Yemen (52%)
- Serbia (52%)
- Belarus (53%)
- Lithuania (54%)
- Madagascar (54%)
- Afghanistan (55%)