Costa Ricans are the happiest, says IDB

An interesting new survey titled Beyond Facts: Understanding Quality of Life, was released this week by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) . Designed and collected in conjunction with Gallup, the survey spans 24 countries in the region and over 40,000 respondents from 2005 to 2007. Among other indicators of relative satisfaction, it measures a composite indicator called "life satisfaction," on a scale from 1 - 10 (10 being the most satisfied).

On this indicator, Costa Rica topped the chart with a score of 7.4, followed by Panama and Mexico, with 6.8 and 6.6, respectively. Not surprisingly, Haiti is at the bottom of the list, with a score of 3.8, and the neighboring Dominican Republic is not far behind with a score of 4.9 (tied with Ecuador and Nicaragua).

Nonetheless, the survey data suggest that satisfaction and income are not necessarily tied. Guatemala scored above both Chile and Uruguay, and Belize was just barely a notch above Jamaica. Using comparable data from world surveys, the study explains, on average, Latin America displays higher levels of satisfaction than most other regions of the world, including for satisfaction of jobs, housing, and health.

IDB president, Luis Alberto Moreno, summarized these results as follows:

“Overall, Latin Americans are satisfied with their lives, but interestingly, people in some of the poorest countries are the most optimistic while citizens of some of the most-developed countries are the most pessimistic... Not surprisingly, people with higher incomes are more satisfied with their lives than those with lower incomes, but economic growth actually breeds discontent rather than greater happiness, at least in the short run.”

Click here to download the full report (PDF).